NORFOLK
Sue Haut had dinner reservations for 6 p.m. Friday. Looking out the window of her Ocean View condominum, something more important came up.
At the height of a storm that swept through Norfolk with 60 mph winds and 3- to 4-foot waves, Haut saw a sailboat in obvious distress.
"He was in a lot of trouble," said Haut, a radiographer by trade who is a six-year member of the volunteer Coast Guard Auxiliary.
Haut watched from her deck as a Coast Guard crew from Little Creek appeared within minutes.
In the rough waters, a man and dog were taken aboard a Coast Guard boat, Haut said. Another Coast Guard vessel towed the sailboat, which had taken on sea water.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Edgardo Mateo said the boat was towed to Taylor's Landing Marine Center. He said neither man nor dog were injured.
It was not a good night to be on the water, or in it. Mateo said the Coast Guard had issued an advisory to that effect. It didn't stop some.
The calls came pouring in as rain and winds pelted Hampton Roads. In Rudee Inlet, the Coast Guard got a call of a stalled boat in distress. A boat was aground in Oyster, on the Eastern Shore.
In Lynnhaven Inlet, two people were reported in the water. Mateo said the Virginia Beach Fire Department pulled them out safely.
"Everything happened at the same time," Mateo said.
About a year ago, Haut said a man drowned in the same area as the sailboat in distress.
"I was so proud; they did it like clockwork," Haut said of the rescue effort.
Her dinner reservations weren't a total loss. She knows the restaurant's owner. She was late, but Haut said she still got a table.
John Warren, (757) 446-2309, john.warren@pilotonline.com
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I say...
If your dumb enough to go out on the water after being warned not to...or fail to pay attention to the marine forecast, you should be on your own. How many coast guardsman are put at risk on a daily basis because of the selfish and ignorant boaters who go out when they shouldn't? Not all boaters (better clarify before I get get verbally attacked), just those who don't have the common sense to take heed to what the ocean/bay can do to you and your boat during a storm.