Ocean Rescue of Couple Aided by Laguna Beach Radio Hams

The U.S. Coast Guard on Sunday credited two Laguna Beach ham radio operators with setting up a communications link that helped them find and rescue a man and wife adrift on their dismasted 29-foot ocean-going yacht 700 miles south of San Diego.

The sloop Grass Matinee, with Patrick and Susan Thomas safe on board, was taken under tow by the cutter Venturous Sunday. The couple are expected to reach San Diego on Thursday.

But Coast Guard Lt. Mike Parks said the story could well have ended differently, but for the volunteer efforts of amateur radio operators Dean Slater and Gregg Howe.

A Call From Tahiti

Slater, 36, was first to receive word of the Thomases’ troubles. An air conditioning estimator who does most of his work at home, he was on the air Wednesday afternoon when a ham operator in Tahiti broke into a routine conversation to ask for help.

The man in Tahiti had picked up a distress call from the Grass Matinee and passed it on to the Coast Guard--and now he had some additional details. Slater agreed to pass them along to the Coast Guard rescue coordination center in Long Beach.

But the Coast Guard wanted still more information.

They “wanted to know everything,” Slater said. “They said to get back and get every little detail I could. I spent all night long going back and forth.”

This information, Parks said, was “very helpful” for it enabled the Coast Guard to narrow the field of the search that was being organized. But for the next two days, the flow of information ceased. Contact with the Grass Matinee had been lost.

On Friday afternoon, however, Howe, 28, reestablished the radio link without trying.

He had been taking a lunch break at his auto electrical repair business, broadcasting a casual CQ/DX (anyone out there?) on his amateur rig, when Susan Thomas’ voice broke through.

The signal was poor and filled with static.

But Howe didn’t realize at first that the situation was serious.

Howe said the first message from Susan Thomas was merely a request for him to telephone her mother in the State of Washington “and let her know that everything’s OK.”

He did that, and thought nothing of it--until 15 minutes later, when he received a telephone call from the Coast Guard in Long Beach. Thomas’ mother had informed them of the contact and their request for further information compelled Howe’s immediate interest and cooperation.

Howe spent the next 28 hours at his rig, acting as a bridge between the Thomases and their would-be rescuers, until the disabled craft was found and taken in tow.