The Islander: Savior at sea When boaters get into trouble, Sam Wilson gets moving By MEGHAN NUTTER, Special to the Islander May 27, 2005
A little red Boston Whaler skims across the blue waters surrounding Marco. Most boaters wave at the captain, Sam Wilson, and he waves back. "Everybody waves at the Towboat.US. guy," he says, smiling. There is a reason they wave. If Wilson hasn't pulled them off of a sandbar, jumped their batteries or brought them fuel, chances are high that he might in the future. If nothing else, his boat offers a little security that if something does go wrong on the water, they won't be alone. He owns his own boat and works with Don Cramer, owner of Southern Marine Towing and Towboat.US. Marco and Naples, and Chris Smith, who runs the boat out of Naples. When a call comes across VHF Channel 16, summoning Towboat.US. Marco, Wilson is most often the one to respond. Seven days a week, day or night, good weather or bad, he is on call. Sometimes he is on the boat, waiting for a call, other times he is at his home on Isles of Capri. When he is told to go, he goes. "It takes a really different person to be able to do this type of job," Wilson says. Exactly what kind of résumé does it take to rescue stranded sailboats, or boats taking on water at sea? Besides the required U.S. Coast Guard operator's license with an assistance towing endorsement, it helps to have a background like Wilson's. Curriculum vitae At age 7, he boarded a sailboat with his family and they set sail for the Bahamas. The kids were home schooled while living on the boat, and after the family built a house on Andros Island, they went to private school. For the next five years he and his brother Daniel spent their days diving, swimming and fishing. Only creatures with gills spent more time in the water. The years following cast the family in Florida, Bimini, Florida again and then St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where the boys attended high school. After he left home, most of Wilson's jobs involved the water. Above the water he has been a charter fisherman, run snorkel and parasailing tours, sailed around the Virgin Islands and other areas of the Caribbean, repaired boats, built boats and rescued boats. Below the water he is a certified diver. His love and knowledge of the water always pull him back to it. And so now, as a Towboat.US. captain, he takes the everyday calls around Marco of grounded vessels, stranded boaters, dead batteries and engine problems. He leaves his dock with some knowledge of the call, never knowing exactly what to expect until he is on scene. With inclement weather come the more dangerous calls. Peril at sea "Towboat.US., Towboat.US., Towboat.US.," a call came across the radio in March 2004. "We got a call from the Coast Guard saying that there was a member of ours that was 50 miles southwest of Marco," Wilson says. "They had damaged their rudder in a storm coming from Key West." The 40-foot yawl sailboat was drifting with no engine and no way to steer the boat. The storm was creating seas up to 12 feet. Wilson left from Marco around 10 a.m. With 6- to 12-foot seas offshore and the wind blowing out of the east, it took him about two hours to reach the boat. A Coast Guard aircraft guided him in. A man and woman were aboard the boat. "These people were just drifting out there in the middle of the ocean," Wilson says. "The sea state was so bad, and they had been in it for two days; they were almost ready to jump in the water and swim to my boat." At that point the boat was nearly 67 miles from Marco. Wilson, in his 25-foot boat, knew he could not tow the sailboat under the extreme conditions. The return trip would be into the wind, with waves on the nose of the boat. Wilson told the passengers by radio that he would not be able to tow them in the weather. "I told them if they wanted to get off their boat that bad, they could put on life jackets and I would retrieve them from the water," Wilson says. "I told them they would just have to let the boat go and retrieve it later on." The woman would not leave the boat because she had three cats on board. Wilson called the Coast Guard to say he would not be able to tow the boat because the sea state had become too threatening. Wilson waited with the stranded boat until the Coast Guard arrived with a 40-foot cutter. Once the Coast Guard had the boat in tow, Wilson had to make his way home. It was then 9 p.m. and Wilson had been battling waves for 11 hours. "I was trying to get home, but couldn't get here from there because the waves were dead on," Wilson says. "I had to quarter the seas." He had to return at an angle, ending in Naples, and then traveled down the coast to Marco. It was 1 a.m. when he reached his home. "I got called out by the Coast Guard at 5 o'clock in the morning to come pick up the sailboat that they had towed in," Wilson says. "It was five miles offshore in really rough seas." The Coast Guard dropped the tow, and Wilson picked it up and brought the boat to Factory Bay. After two days of battling heavy weather, the couple were elated to be in the safety of the bay.
"When you get them in, you are their savior," Wilson says. "It makes the job worthwhile."
