Dungeness season must be close because the bar is breaking pretty steady. Earlier today it was an intermittent break on the incoming tide, letting a few boats out to try for rockfish. One of these boats out of Miller Park limited out on rockfish in 100 feet of water about a mile or so south of Tomales Point. On the way back in, sometime after 11:00, the boat was either overtaken by a wave or overtook a wave (reports vary) on the bar at the mouth of the bay and was rolled over (reports agree). Steve Werlin, known on here at times as the Dark Lord, happened to be watching from his house on the hill in Dillon Beach. He called Gage first while somebody else called 911. Gage was, at that time, in Half Moon Bay looking at big pumpkins.  He called Cameron. Cameron grabbed me. Cameron jumped in the tractor headed for the boat lot. We tried John Brezina's Whaler because he doesn't have a bow rail (easier to load people from the water) but no keys, so.... Shrimp Boat to the rescue! Thanks, Alec. It's amazing how fast you can drive a boat over sloppy water when 1.) someone is in danger, and 2.) it's not your boat. The bar laid down the whole time we approached and as we got closer you could see people huddled together in the water. Then a wave started to build in front of us about head high and started feathering in the east breeze. We hit it just right and caught a bit of air before gently landed. Alec has a lot of crap in that boat but it apparently balances it out properly for gentle landings. Thanks, Alec, and I hope I didn't lose too much of your special ballast over the side on the run out. Then we were at the swimmers.

    First thing, one of them was a maybe 5 or 6 year old girl. Before you get all, "How dare they take a little kid on the ocean!", how do you think Cameron and Gage got so comfortable on the big pond? You gotta start sometime, and a good way to get your kids used to being on the water and not getting seasick is just by doing it. So, make your comments, and I'll let 'em post, but I stand with the dad. In this case, the boat flipped and the child was trapped under the boat. When dad figured this out he started diving under the boat in a frenzy to get his child out. As you would. Well, as I hope I would. Diving under a flipped boat with God knows what hanging under with possible fish hooks, ropes, whatever to tangle up or get trapped in without a wetsuit or fins or mask..... I want to believe that I would do it too, and I think I want to think I would, but Goddamn..... But he got her out. And when we got there he was so spent he couldn't even speak. We grabbed the kid, because she was easy and light and if a wave comes and I gotta leave, well, I ain't leaving a kid. Then Cameron blew his back out trying to get the dad on board. But between him pulling and the other guy in the water pushing, they got him in. I was leaning like a sailboater trying to balance the boat and watching for waves. The other fellow scrambled in (former surfer and accustomed to cold water. I may have to start trying that cold water immersion thing) and said two more were on the boat but they were swept in towards the bay. We ran in across the bar (mostly) and saw two people on the beach in the first cove behind Red Rock. Three coves over was a sandy beach that we could pick them up from, but it would take them some time to get there and the dad was non-verbal. I was thinking that if they could swim in there they probably weren't in as bad of shape as the dad. Making up my mind, over the Point came Henry One, the Sonoma County Sheriff's helicopter, with a badass on a fixed rope dangling underneath. That being more badasses than we had, I figured they had it, and we hauled ass back to Lawson's where the Marin County Fire Department had arrived and were deploying. They grabbed our people and started actually saving lives. They had them wrapped up quick. The other two were picked up by Henry One and dropped off here. Hopefully everyone ends up okay. The boat will likely be up on the rocks north of Dillon Beach tomorrow. I hope everyone involved ends up okay. Dad and his daughter weren't awesome when they left but they were in good hands and heading towards even better ones, so there's that. The big takeaway is, the rockcod are biting. This is a fishing report, after all. 

For the record, we aren't lifeguards or rescue guys. We just heard that there was a problem and responded. It's what you do. Don't count on us or anyone to save you. I ain't going if it's really bad. And mostly nobody tells me if there's a problem. So be safe.