On a casual excursion back from an excellent three dive day at Catalina, we came across a drifting boat a few miles outside of Catalina.

They were waving frantically for assistance.

They could have been out there for minutes, hours or days…

One of the deck hands told me, “The Magician was ahead of us and just drove by them.”

The Cee Ray pulled up and asked what was wrong.

“We are out of gas! We need help!”

They didn’t have “Vessel Assist.”

If we didn’t render assistance, they may have just drifted towards Japan, wasting away due to starvation, dehydration and over exposure.

Captain Mike did the right thing and towed them in.

Now, how the hell do you run out of gas that close from Catalina?

As we were towing them, we started to speculate that they may have really been coming from Mexico – their hull filled with drugs and guns…

Who the hell knows?

However, they did know that the entire boat was “talking shit” about them on the ride back.

Regardless, they were extremely grateful for our assistance.

And, even though it probably added almost two hours to our trip back, you have to do, what you’ve got to do, to render assistance on the open seas.

Raw footage of the rescue is here:

To view this video on YouTube,