An ocean rescue off Fripp Island on Sunday afternoon turned even dicier after two members of the volunteer Fripp Island Sea Rescue crew had to be rescued themselves when their boat began to sink in the waves off the island's inlet.
The volunteer rescue squad members responded to a call for help from a Barnwell man and his son at about 2 p.m. Sunday after the men became stranded in a 15-foot johnboat about a mile and a half off the island's shore, said Paul Field, skipper of the search and rescue group.
The Barnwell men's boat motor had died, and the boat was taking on water in choppy conditions caused by the low tide, Field said.
"It was rough to get in there," Field said of the breakers where the men were trapped. "We do sandbar patrols when we have tidal changes and when the tide goes out against the wind like that, it's tough."
After the rescue crew put the Barnwell men on a local man's boat, they began the task of towing the johnboat to the shore, Field said.
That's when the rescuers began to have problems of their own, he said.
"When we went to tow their boat, the breakers flipped the boat around and the line was cut on the propeller," Field said. "The guys couldn't control it with how rough it was."
The rescue squad's 17-foot Boston Whaler then began to fill with water and sand, and the motor died, he said.
Field and other crew members returned to help the two stranded volunteers with the squad's boat, which was anchored at Fripp Island Marina.
The Barnwell men's boat was picked up by the same local fisherman who helped transport the men, Field said. The sea rescue crew lost about $500 in equipment during the ordeal, but no one was injured, he said.
"In our 27 years of operation, we've never lost a man or had anyone seriously injured," Field said. "We're just glad we were able to get everyone home safe."
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