Woman rescued by fishermen in Monterey Bay
“She was, she still had some energy in her body. But she sure was happy to see us,” said deckhand Joe Davi of the Sea Hawk, a crab boat based out of the Monterey Harbor.
Davi and his captain were at the center of a rescue that saved a 45-year-old woman’s life on Wednesday morning. She spent 15 hours clinging to a plastic box on an inflatable boat. Coast Guard officers said the woman went out to sea on Tuesday evening to watch the sunset. But heavy fog rolled in and the wind pushed her out to sea.
Those who made the rescue said this story wouldn’t be one of survival if not for two fisherman. They were in the right place at the right time.
“Yeah you’re always helping somebody if there’s a problem,” said Sea Hawk Captain Mike Ricketts.
Ricketts said he’s not a hero, he’s just a crab fisher who keeps an eye for any suspicious.
“Looked like a log or something in the water and then I put the glasses on and I could see it was something. And a guy in a sailboat came up just about the same time,” Ricketts said.
Ricketts said the woman was very cold and hanging onto her boat about 200 yards away. He and his deckhand keep rescue equipment on board the Sea Hawk. They were able to get her on a rescue sling but weren’t able to pull her completely up onto the boat.
“We didn’t have enough strength to get her in the boat,” Ricketts said.
Ricketts said he’s seen a few situations like this before and knew she needed help right away. So they called 911 from a cell phone.
“You know like I said from the looks of her skin she still had some red in her and stuff. She must have been swimming,” Davi said.
The Coast Guard got her out of the water and Monterey firefighters brought her to shore. The fishermen said because of situations like this, they always keep an eye out.
“It was foggy earlier, that was her problem, the fog came in I guess last night. But she didn’t know where she was, or where to go or anything,” Ricketts said.
The woman is in the hospital recovering from hypothermia. We reached out to her through the Coast Guard but she said she didn’t want to speak about her rescue.
