Commentary: Narwhal, a Coast Guard cutter with a proud history, is ready for any eventuality

The Newport Beach-based Coast Guard cutter Narwhal and its crew of 11 are prepared to respond to any kind of emergency this busy Memorial Day weekend, according to its commanding officer.

Home-ported at the Coast Guard facility on Bayside Drive, the Narwhal also works closely with other water-borne first-responders during incidents of danger, said Lt. Jamie Kim, 27, an Irvine native who graduated from Canyon View Elementary School, Northwood High School and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

In partnership with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, Baywatch, the California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the crew of the 87-foot Narwhal is unanimous in advising Orange Coast recreational boaters about the perils that might await them on Memorial Day as well as Labor Day, the prime summertime three-day holiday weekends.

Common sense must be the watchword for boaters who take to the bay and ocean on federal holidays. This week is National Safe Boating Week, and passengers and crew on the crowded waters should make sure that lifejackets are readily available for everyone on board, ship-to-shore radios are installed on each boat, boaters have notified family members or friends of their “float plans” or intended destinations, excessive drinking while operating a vessel is a violation of state law and lookouts must be posted on all craft to warn of possible collisions with other boats, warns Steve Batchelor, a Narwhal boatswain mate.

The Narwhal, which can reach a top speed of 25 knots or 29 miles per hour and is named for a whale that has a large, sword-like tusk protruding from its lip, has responded to a wide range of emergencies since its 2001 commissioning in Newport Beach.

On one occasion, for example, the Narwhal received a distress call from a sailboat that was sinking or capsizing off Catalina Island. When the cutter arrived at the scene, its crew saw that the three passengers aboard, a married couple and their 1-year-old child, were in immediate danger of being tossed into the sea.

Narwhal crew members jumped into the cutter’s eight-foot, rigid-hull boat, brought it aside the stricken sailboat, rescued the people aboard, pumped water out of the sailboat’s hull, repaired the leak and brought the passengers and their sailboat back to Newport Beach.

Several days later, the Narwhal received another distress call, this time from boaters who radioed that an ocean kayaker had become overcome by heat exhaustion and was in danger of drowning. The Narwhal’s crew brought the unconscious man aboard and transported him to their base on Bayside Drive, where an ambulance took him to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian. The kayaker survived, and his rescue was covered by several Los Angeles television stations.

The Narwhal also participated in the rescue of a deep-sea diver who had contracted the bends, or decompression sickness caused by the formation of gas bubbles that can enter the body because of rapid changes in pressure under water. Paralysis or death may result if the patient is not immediately placed in a decompression chamber. The victim, who was diving off Catalina Island, was taken by the Narwhal to Avalon and airlifted by a Coast Guard helicopter to a Los Angeles hospital, where he was treated successfully.

Ocean rescues aren’t the only responsibility of the Narwhal and the Coast Guard’s other Southern California cutters, which are based at Santa Barbara, Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard, Marina del Rey, Los Angeles/Long Beach and San Diego.

Drug smuggling, which in earlier years was mostly carried out on land through the U.S. border with Mexico, has also taken to the high seas, and the Coast Guard, using its cutters and helicopters, has been pressed into action to interdict the flow of cocaine, marijuana and other drugs declared illegal by the federal government.

In one night-time instance, the Narwhal, on routine patrol off the coast of northern Mexico, received a radio report from U.S. Customs and Border Protection about a suspicious-looking, 25-foot boat that was racing north without lights. When the Narwhal located the boat, which carried three passengers, the suspected smugglers quickly turned around and began throwing plastic-wrapped bales of marijuana into the sea.

In the fog and mist, the smugglers evaded the Narwhal and escaped. But assisted by Coast Guard helicopters, which dropped buoys where the bales were jettisoned, the Narwhal located and picked up most of the floating bundles which weighed a total of about 10,000 pounds.

It was the largest marijuana haul in 15 years, according to a Coast Guard spokesperson, who was quoted in news reports after the incident.

On another day, the Narwhal was standing by when federal agents interrupted a drug smuggling operation in waters off Catalina Island that involved a new twist: The use of sailboats to bring drugs into Southern California ports

The agents discovered the suspected smuggling attempt after stopping a sailboat flashing its lights. Once aboard, the officers found a three-man crew along with a loaded shotgun, a pistol and night vision equipment.

Suspecting the smugglers were preparing to rendezvous with another, larger boat to perform a drug swap, the federal agents called in a helicopter to scan the water for other nearby vessels. The chopper’s pilots soon spotted a Mexican fishing boat about five miles away, and during a high-speed chase someone on the fishing boat was seen throwing large bales into the ocean.

When the U.S. agents reached the floating bundles, they hauled them aboard and recovered 130 bales of marijuana, which had an estimated street value of $1 million. The chase also ended successfully. The Mexican fishing boat was stopped as was the sailboat, and the three U.S. nationals aboard the sailboat and four Mexican nationals on the fishing boat were arrested.

“The smugglers think that when their recreational boats such as sailboats move the drugs to shore, they will blend in with other recreational traffic off the Southern California coastline and make it much more difficult for us to detect illegal drug activity,” reported a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official following the arrests of the crew members of both boats and the retrieval of the marijuana bales.

Although the Narwhal has participated primarily in ocean emergencies and other situations where weapons are not required, the cutter is armed with two .50 caliber machine guns and, when necessary, crew members are issued .40 caliber pistols, metal helmets and Kevlar vests for their personal protection.

At their home port in Newport Beach, the cutter’s crew is ready for anything and everything during the Memorial Day weekend.

David C. Henley is a contributor to Times Community News.