What do you do when you look up from cleaning your boat to see four frantic people in a classic wooden boat waving their arms and screaming, “We’re sinking! We’re sinking!”?
You try to get them as close to shore as possible.
That is exactly what happened on June 27, just off the north end of Mercer Island. At approximately 7:30 p.m. on a sunny, yet blustery Saturday, I was detailing Bill Webster’s ski boat on the north end of Mercer Island when I looked up to see four people heading toward the dock in a classic wooden boat.
Something about the boat seemed odd. As I tried to figure out who might be in the vessel and why they were waving their arms so excitedly, their proximity diminished and I heard their screams, “We’re sinking! We’re sinking!”
Immediately, I began waving them in and directing them to drive to the beach as fast as they could. By the time they reached the end of the dock, the boat was nearly halfway under water and its occupants and items were beginning to float out of the confines of the classic model. A final push of the throttle neared the boat closer to shore. It fell short of the beach by about 30 feet, sinking into the soft bottom of Lake Washington’s shallow shore.
I was relieved to see that all four passengers were wearing life preservers and appeared to be uninjured, although, as one would expect, the shock of the event had begun to set in. The soaking wet, casually clad foursome emerged from the lake with pale faces. They had made it to land.
The Mercer Island Marine Patrol was alerted via a 911 emergency call and arrived within a matter of minutes. The MIPD officers took control of the situation, later calling in Vessel Assist to raise the boat and tow it to dry dock.
Through conversations with the boat’s owner and driver, Jamie Bernard of Seattle, and an informal investigation by Vessel Assist, we learned how the accident happened.
Somewhere between the Bellevue side of Lake Washington and the north end of Mercer Island, Bernard’s boat collided with debris in the lake, which punched a hole in the hull of the wooden vessel. Bernard did not realize that he had hit anything, but did recognize the signs of trouble when he felt water coming up around his ankles.
After alerting his passengers — his girlfriend, father and father’s girlfriend — and attempting to bail the water from the boat without success, Bernard knew that they were going down. After unsuccessful attempts to flag down passing boats, Bernard decided to race for the nearest shore of Mercer Island. He spotted me on the dock, and this is where our story began.
