A Bruisin’ Cruise

Salvage crews struggled all day Monday to free a 65-foot sailboat that ran aground in thick fog just north of the Seal Beach Municipal Pier late Sunday night, requiring 14 passengers and crew members to be helped to safety.

About 20 rescuers from four agencies went into action when a distress call from the Resolute went out about 7:45 p.m. The 10 men and four women aboard were checked for injuries and released in good condition, said Long Beach Battalion Chief Jack Bender.

However, the Resolute stubbornly remained lodged on the sand, waves pounding the side of the listing vessel, until dive teams and rescue boats finally freed it about 7 p.m. Monday.

Tom McManus, 27, and Dana Coelho, 25, who have owned the vessel for a month, said the single-masted boat narrowly missed a rock jetty before it got stuck in the sand just off the beach.

The pair, who had traveled to Santa Catalina Island with a dozen friends to celebrate McManus’ birthday, were on their way back to Terminal Island when the accident occurred.

“We sat on the beach watching the boat all night,” a tired, hungry and embarrassed McManus said early Monday. “We felt kind of stupid, but things happen.”

The pair, both from Diamond Bar, bought the sailboat with the intention of fixing it up and living aboard it in Newport Beach, McManus said. The Costa Mesa-produced 1984 MacGregor sailboat is valued at about $100,000, according to a spokesman from the boat manufacturer.

Groups gathered on the beach throughout the day Monday, watching the salvage efforts and lending advice.

Alan Posner heard the distress call over his radio as he maneuvered his own sailboat through the thick fog Sunday night.

“It was such a calm mayday, I’m shocked to see this,” he said.

McManus and Coelho, who had sailed the boat only once before, said one of the passengers who served as captain was piloting through the fog when the Resolute got caught in the surf near the rock jetty separating Seal Beach from Long Beach and grounded in about 5 feet of water.

The Resolute was sailing without radar, which made it even more difficult to navigate.

Attempts to free the boat from deep sand Monday morning failed when the tow lines repeatedly broke. Dive teams were able to slightly turn the Resolute into the breakers, in an attempt to keep rough surf from causing further damage to the boat’s keel. By evening, it was free and heading to the Long Beach Marina Shipyard.

About three hours after the Resolute hit the sand, the Long Beach Fire Department received a second call of a boat grounded in the same area. Rescuers were able to free the second, smaller boat.