State police offshore jet-ski recovery

A few weeks back the team was having their October meeting and got a call from the police telling us to stand by for a request from the New Jersey State police. A jet ski has over turned in the inlet and with a missing person.

    Since it was a meeting we had the whole team and was able to put two crew together, one for the search at the inlet and another crew for Rescue 34 (our 19 foot Rib, rescue boat boat). The crew for the boat would launch the boat and head for the inlet and the other crew would gear up for the inlet search.

    With a strong outgoing tide the jet-ski was pulled far off shore. The crew at the inlet waited to see if a in water search was needed. While the boat crew headed off shore. As the boat cleared the inlet we could see a boat about a mile offshore and headed towards it.

 We didn’t see the coast guard, so we kept heading to the boat we could see. It turned out to be a state police boat and as we got closer we could see the upside down jet-ski behind the boat. They were trying to turn it right side up but with the 4-6 swells were having a hard time.

   I told them we had divers on the boat and we could check to see if anyone was trapped under it and they asked if we could get the numbers off it. Diver Rich Gurry rolled off the boat and checked the jet-ski and got the numbers off it.

    Then the State police said they were going to try to tow it back in and with it upside down and that was going to be very hard. So we put Rich and new member Julia Brand in the water to turn it back up right. Once up right they got a tow line on the jet-ski and started for the inlet, which by now was a mile and a half away.

     With the ocean as rough as it was we told the state police we would stay with them in case anything happened (IE flip over, tow line break) By the time we got back to the inlet they knew the driver was safe and no one was in the water and the owner would meet them at the boat ramp at the foot of Bay ave.

   We follow behind them the whole way in and stayed with them until the jet-ski was on the trailer and out of the water. The state police did a get job getting the jet-ski and getting it back to the owner and they thanked us for our help.

    The owner told us the whole story about how it happened, he was going out the inlet and saw how rough the ocean was and tried to turn around and a wave hit him and rolled the jet-ski. With the out- going tide and the rough water at the end of the inlet they tried a few times to roll it back but couldn’t, so he jumped on his friends jet-ski and came back in.

    We didn’t get any pictures offshore because someone forgot the camera (ME). With as rough as it was we were kind of busy doing our jobs, me driving the boat and Sue Lewicki as safety diver and Rich and Julia in the water, we did get a few as we came in the inlet. The state police said they got a few with us in the water, so if we ever get them I’ll add them to this post