Only in Beaufort: Water rescue group are folks you know

When lost at sea in our coastal waters, the first faces that come to the rescue probably won’t be a crew from a Coast Guard cutter.

It’s more likely to be the former military officer or retired school teacher you saw at the grocery store last week. They’re the volunteers in the business of saving the adrift, and with summer upon us in Beaufort, business is about to pick up.

Since 1975, Beaufort Water Search and Rescue - part of the Marine Rescue Squadrons of America - has patrolled the waters around Beaufort to answer distress calls and assist – free-of-charge - local county agencies. Those calls range from something as seemingly simple as an unmanned, shipwrecked boat that lost its anchor to a boater run aground on one of the many sandbars in the area.

Nothing, however, is simple if you’re the one in distress.

“We have so many boaters from other areas who don’t know the area’s tides and sandbars,” said Nick Russell, an active member of the all-volunteer group for over 40 years. “Back when we started, it meant a lot of rescues.”

Russell, the former deputy administrator of the Beaufort County Public Works Department and a Marine, joined the group months after its charter as a way to continue serving the public. In his time, he has seen the group update its boating technology and increase engine sizes.

More recently, he’s seen the addition of an airboat, GPS tracking and a high-powered depth-finder that uses SONAR to provide a complete view of the ocean floor.

What hasn’t changed is the human penchant for error.

The most common call for help is for a disabled boat, whether the kill switch was pulled, the tank ran empty or the engine just quit.

A need to help those in that situation, along with a desire to give back to the community, is also what attracted Doyle Clifton, a 22-year vet, to the squadron.

“I wanted to put to use the skills I had from being a local boater and fisherman to help others,” he said. “With the Water Search and Rescue, we have all the local knowledge of the water in one spot.”

That includes areas of specialty since various members know every creek and inlet from Morgan River to Broad River.

No amount of river knowledge prepares you, however, for the different kinds of distress calls that include boats stuck in trees and boats stuck, improbably, on docks. Those provide what current Skipper Scott Jennings calls “the thrill factor.”

There must be a thrill to it, because, as Clifton points out, the conditions that squadron members get called out in are sometimes less than ideal.

“It’s always cold and dark and raining, and we stay out until the last possible minute to locate someone,” he said. “You can’t be a normal person to want to do this.”

We should all be grateful for their oddity and intrinsic motivation.

Jennings says that simple preparation and “staying attuned to conditions” can prevent a lot of boating mishaps.

If you’re out on the water this summer and are unable to do just that, then be prepared instead to meet a squadron member.

It’s their unpaid job to help.

This story was originally published April 7, 2016 at 12:47 PM with the headline "Only in Beaufort: Water rescue group are folks you know."