MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII, KANEOHE BAY, Hawaii -- Waterfront Operations came to the rescue twice this week when a 59-foot sailboat ran aground in the Kaneohe Bay Dec. 2, and a 15-foot motorboat nearly capsized near the outer reef Dec. 1.
Both vessels received only minor damage, and no one on either crew was injured.
While Waterfront Operations assists with more than 90 incidents each year, the back-to-back assistance calls were no problem for the 17 Sailors assigned to the unit.
A Sailor on watch at Waterfront Operations Sunday was visited by a surfer whose motor boat was in danger of capsizing near Turtleback Rock at the edge of the bay. Three men used the boat to travel to the reef to surf the waves there, and when they returned to their boat, found that the 10-15-foot swells were giving their boat a beating.
Unable to drive back, one of the men contacted Waterfront Operations, and the Sailors responded to help the boaters clear their debris out of the water, and get their vessel to shore. The Sailors towed the boat to the pier and the men pulled it out with their trailer and drove away.
The incident Monday involved a large double-masted sailboat from Lanai, which ran aground in the bay before 4 a.m. The crew of four was unfamiliar with the channels in the bay and became stuck at 5 a.m. Without any radio capabilities, the crew decided to use their 15-foot motorboat to try and get help, but that too became grounded and needed to be towed.
"The bay is difficult to navigate, especially at night when the background lights kind of blend in with the navigational markers," said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Matthew Santos, officer in charge at Waterfront Operations.
"It takes several trips through the bay to be familiar with the coral and the channels."
While Waterfront Operations' jurisdiction officially stops at 500 feet from the shore of the base, the Sailors routinely work with the Coast Guard to assist boaters in distress on the Windward side of the island.
"We help the Coast Guard with most stranded boater incidents from Kahuku point to Makapuu," said Santos. "It takes them a long time to get a boat around to this side of the island, so we help whenever we can."
While the Coast Guard has aircraft for search and rescue operations anywhere on the island, some of the waterborne capabilities overlap.
Waterfront Operations contacts the Coast Guard and advises them of their plans, and when the Coast Guard gives the thumbs-up, the Sailors go to work.
Waterfront Operations, in addition to providing 24-hour security for the base and providing a waterborne search and rescue capability to the base, also provides mission and training support for the many Marine, Navy, and Coast Guard units in Hawaii. They also provide MCB Hawaii with a readily accessible Environmental Response Team in case of an oil spill in Kaneohe Bay. This unit has all of the equipment required to reclaim oil in the event of a spill.