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.<\/p>\n
They were waving frantically for assistance.<\/p>\n
They could have been out there for minutes, hours or days…<\/p>\n
One of the deck hands told me, “The Magician was ahead of us and just drove by them.”<\/p>\n
The Cee Ray pulled up and asked what was wrong.<\/p>\n
“We are out of gas! We need help!”<\/p>\n
They didn’t have “Vessel Assist.”<\/p>\n
If we didn’t render assistance, they may have just drifted towards Japan, wasting away due to starvation, dehydration and over exposure.<\/p>\n
Captain Mike did the right thing and towed them in.<\/p>\n
Now, how the hell do you run out of gas that close from Catalina?<\/p>\n
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…<\/p>\n
Who the hell knows?<\/p>\n
However, they did know that the entire boat was “talking shit” about them on the ride back.<\/p>\n
Regardless, they were extremely grateful for our assistance.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Raw footage of the rescue is here:<\/p>\n