Rescuing Admiral Rickover’s Guys

By “Admiral Rickover’s guys” I mean two former staff members serving Admiral Hyman Rickover, “Father of the Nuclear Navy.”

Long story made short: I was out sailing with a bud on a very cold gray snotty morning and saw what I thought were a couple of fisherman waving. Usually fishermen don’t wave at sailboats. It turned out it was two guys on the overturned hull of a Thistle sailing dinghy. The thing had turtled yet, oddly enough, one guy was dry except for one pants leg. The other guy was in the water hanging on in 47 degree water.With the help of my buddy, I dropped my sails and backed up within five feet—steering clear of lines that may have gotten tangled in my prop. The guy in the water was so weak we barely got him aboard. He was taken down below, stripped and wrapped in a sleeping bag. The other guy told us about Admiral Rickover.