EVERETT — The sailboat was there, day after day, in shallow water between Jetty Island and the Tulalip Indian Reservation.
It didn’t move.
On Tuesday, someone who’d been watching the boat from shore went to investigate.
When he got within shouting distance, he realized that the boat was stuck in the mud and the man on board needed help.
He called 911.
The sailboat owner said he’d been stranded for eight days, much of that time without food or water, Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Shari Ireton said.
The sheriff’s office Marine Unit already was on the choppy water that rainy, windy evening. It had been dispatched to help a woman on a boat with a small leak and no fuel. The Tulalip Tribes ended up taking that call.
Deputies then got the call to check on the man on the sailboat. They soon realized he was in trouble.
The marine unit’s 28-foot boat was too big and the water too shallow to reach the stranded vessel. Deputies were able to help him aboard another sheriff’s office vessel, a 17-footer.
“This could have ended badly,” Ireton said. “No one really knew he was out there.”
The 60-year-old man explained he had flown in from Alaska to Seattle in early May and bought the sailboat, which had been moored in a marina.
The new owner ran out of fuel and then tried to use the sails.
“He was not an experienced seaman,” Ireton said.
The keel became stuck in the mud and the boat wouldn’t budge, even at high tide.
The man, who was clearly cold, initially told deputies he didn’t want to leave his boat.
“He was disoriented. He was hungry. He was dehydrated,” Ireton said. “They were concerned about his physical and mental health at the time.”
The man was taken to the 10th Street boat launch where he was met by Everett Fire Department medics before being taken to Providence Regional Medical Center Everett for a medical evaluation.
The man later was referred to Compass Health for a mental health evaluation.
The sheriff’s office marine unit could not remove the sailboat.
Its 28-footer is too big to reach it and the 17-footer can’t generate enough power to pull it out, Ireton said. The sailboat could be there a while.
By law, “the onus falls on the owner to get it out,” Ireton said.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com.
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