By Jennifer Langston
Herald Writer
TULALIP — Three teen-age boys plucked from the frigid waters of Tulalip Bay after their boat capsized Saturday afternoon were lucky that people were out enjoying a cool sunset.
The boys were rescued by a Mission Beach Road resident and a passing boater before emergency vehicles had a chance to arrive.
"None of them were hurt, but they were just cold as hell and scared," said Andy Greenshields, who jumped into his boat, which had been put up for the winter, and brought one of the nearly hypothermic boys back to shore. "They hadn’t been in there for more than about 20 minutes, or they would have been bluer."
Tim Shay was visiting friends from his Marysville church and setting out to take a walk on the beach with his family when he heard someone screaming for help.
They got out the binoculars and saw people clinging to an overturned metal boat with its engine sticking up into the air. They called 911, yelling to the boys from the shore to make sure they knew help was on the way.
Greensheilds was on his waterfront deck when he saw the overturned boat drifting about 200 yards offshore below the tip of Camano Island. He called 911, too. But when he realized someone was already reporting it, he lowered his own boat into the bay and went after them.
The boys, who were from the Tulalip area but whose names were not released by emergency officials, told him a crabbing pot pulled one of them overboard. The boat flipped when the other two tried to get him out of the water, Greenshields said.
Greenshields only had room for one other person in his small boat, so he took the boy who had been in the water the longest. All the boys were wearing life jackets.
Another boat rescued the other two boys and took them to a marina before the Coast Guard and rescue vehicles arrived. The boys were met by emergency medical technicians, who turned over two to their parents and took one to the hospital. He was treated and released.
Tom Turner was outside moving furniture into his house, which was the closest place to bring in the boy that Greenshields fished out of the water. So they took him in, stripped him down and tried to warm him up until an ambulance arrived.
"Out here if you see a boat or people in trouble, everybody runs," said Greenshields, who has lived in the area for 25 years. "It’s just a matter of whoever’s got the fastest dinghy."
Greenshields said that about 10 years ago he helped rescue some people who had hit a submerged log. Last summer he had to haul in his neighbor, who had flipped his boat in front of his house.
"It happens now and then," he said. "For as many boats as there are out there, it doesn’t happen as often as you’d think."
Just down the street from where the boys were rescued, a fire whipped up by a major windstorm on Dec. 1 destroyed one house and threatened to torch the entire neighborhood. But the residents stayed and took care of everybody.
"It’s kind of close-knit," said another neighbor, Jill Martinez. "Living out here, you just look after each other."
You can call Herald Writer Jennifer Langston at 425-339-3452 or send e-mail to langston@heraldnet.com.
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