Point Reyes Light - July 26, 2001

Inverness man, 87, rescues trio of boaters

By Simone Garrigues and Marian Schinske

A remarkably fit 87-year-old Inverness man earlier this month rescued three youths from Tomales Bay after they were washed out of their speedboat near Duck Cove on the bay’s west shore.

"They looked as if they were having trouble," said Jim Polese, who had observed the accident from his Duck Cove residence and then rowed out to the youths in his dinghy. "Why – a few minutes later they were floundering in the water!"

Polese rescued Tristan Keady, 15, of Point Reyes Station; Alex Patterson, 16, of Point Reyes Station; and Chris Schinnerer, 21, of Boise, Idaho.

Keady said the incident occurred around noon on July 11 while he was being towed on an inner tube behind their 14-foot fiberglass speedboat with an outboard motor.

"We were riding slowly, about 10 mph," Keady said. "Alex [Patterson] was driving and during a turn, the motor raced and a wave washed over the stern. The boat turned over, and everyone was thrown overboard."

All three youths were wearing lifejackets, Keady added.

Swam with stuff

"We were in the water for a while, trying to flip the boat around and prevent it from sinking," he continued. "Then we realized that no one had seen us, so we tried to gather everything that was floating around us... and swam with all the stuff... We were almost all the way to shore, when he [Polese] met us in his rowboat."

Keady said that the outcome may have been different without Polese’s heroic efforts. "If Jim wasn’t there, I don’t know what we would have done. We’re just really lucky that he lives there."

Polese said he first saw the trio in the water from his house he built 28 years ago in a remote setting on Duck Cove. He estimated that the capsized speedboat was about halfway across Tomales Bay between the cove and Marshall.

He immediately got into his rowboat and headed toward the swimmers, he said. "They were just flapping around and I told them to follow me. Two of them were good swimmers – the other I threw a line."

Showers and cocoa

Keady said that he and Schinnerer swam to shore and Patterson grabbed onto the line tossed out by Polese. After the group made it to shore Polese insisted that the boys accompany him to his house, take hot showers, and drink hot cocoa, he said. "He also put our wet clothes in the dryer."

Meanwhile, the trio’s speedboat had capsized and begun to take on water. "Just a peak of the boat was showing and was drifting toward Indian Beach," Polese said.

Park Service rangers towed the boy’s boat to safety at Marconi Landing in Marshall, Keady said.

Polese said he was glad that the boys and their boat made it safely out of the chilly and sometimes rough waters of Tomales Bay.

"The bay is dangerous. It’s not very wide, and a good swimmer can swim across it – but it is cold," he said. "Most of the drownings in the bay are from hypothermia. We loose about a person a year to hypothermia, especially in the mouth of the bay."

Experienced seaman

Although he’d never admit it, Polese is an experienced seaman.

Born in 1914 at Winehaven, Point Richmond, Polese apprenticed as a machinist at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. During World War II, he worked as an engineer on a Victory ship and sailed around the world. While working as an engineer, he fished regularly, he said. He spoke fondly of his all-time favorite fishing boat, The Angelina (which was previously owned by Dr. Michael Whitt of Inverness Park). "She's a lovely lady... an Italian fishing boat, a Monterey," he said. "She’s still in the bay."

Indulging his interest in maritime stories, Polese wrote Tales from the Iron Triangle, a memoir of his boyhood days in the San Francisco Bay Area. Polese said the book may offer some lessons to the three young boaters.

Gave out books

"I gave the boys a copy of my book, because I wanted them to know that other boys had problems with boats," he said.

Ironically, in the wake of their boating accident, the boys can’t wait to return to Duck Cove.

"We were going to like get him something and chat with him for a while because he was really nice," Keady said. "He wanted to tell us lots of stories. That the old man would go through such an effort to help us was really kind."

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