“
the medical help she needed within min-
utes of his response.
“I’m sure if I didn’t get to her,” Leon-
ardo says, “she would have been bad of .”ROUGH PASSAGET
he weather could not have been
worse of the Atlantic coast of
eastern Long Island on Mother’s
Day 2013. But Stan Stiansen, owner of the
45-foot commercial vessel Pauline IV,
had gone out anyway, because that’s
what commercial fi shermen do. Upon
returning to port after a successful haul,
Pauline IV got into trouble in Shin-
necock Inlet,
and Stiansen
put out a dis-
tress call.
“I was sit-
ting in the
o ce when
I heard the
call over the fi re-department band, and
I jumped in the boat,” says Capt. Les
Traf ord of Sea Tow Shinnecock. “No-
body else was going out. I grew up here,
so I was sure it was someone I knew.”
The waves that day, measuring 6 to8 feet of shore, doubled in size when they
stacked up on the sandbars around the in-
let. Stiansen, 85 years old with decades of
experience, got hit by a 15-foot rogue wave.
“Stan caught a bad set,” recalls
Traf ord. “The fi rst wave caught him
from behind and put the boat on its side.
The next wave went over the decks and
washed the deck mate, Scott Finne, over.”
Traf ord, a 19-year Sea Tow veteranand 100-ton Master, ran his 24-foot
Starfi re out of the inlet. Its fl ush decks
helped him shed water in the rough surf,
and his twin MerCruisers totaling 800
hp helped him plow through the inlet.
Unable to get close to Pauline IV,
which at this point was stuck on a sand-
bar, Traf ord started circling the debris
fi eld, looking for signs of life. A police
helicopter arrived on scene and helped
guide Traf ord to Finne, who had drifted
a mile of shore.
“He was clinging to a plastic net buoy
and a piece of wood,” says Traf ord, who
pulled him out of the cold water and
saved his life. Unfortunately, Stiansen
had been trapped inside the boat’s cabin,
and Traf ord was unable to rescue him.
While Stiansen and Finne knew the PHOTOS: COURTESY SEA TOW (2), SHUTTERSTOCK (OCEAN WAVE, WOOD)HE WAS CLINGING TO A PLASTIC NET BUOY AND
A PIECE OF WOOD. IT COULD HAPPEN TO ANY
BODY. STAN GOT CAUGHT IN SHALLOW WATER AT
JUST THE WRONG TIME. I’VE SEEN GUYS IN THEIR
20FOOTERS TRY TO DO THE SAME THING.”
SEAMANSHIP LESSON
Know where the sandbars are
before running any local inlet.
And know the weather. When
the seas are too big for your
boat, stay home.
Capt. Les Tra ord92 | BOATINGMAG.COM | MAY 2018