Larry Joseph thought Sunday looked like a great day for boating.
Too bad his boat didn't play along.
Joseph spent hours bobbing in his 25-foot jet boat near Point MacKenzie after his Chevy 454 engine quit. Anchorage firefighters ultimately dry-suited up and motored out to fetch Joseph and his boat, maneuvering their rigid-hull inflatable through rough tides and tough winds.
The mission took a couple of hours to play out. There was no point in rushing, because Joseph wasn't in real danger, said Young Suenram, a fire department battalion chief. And it let firefighters rehearse rescue techniques, not to mention entertain folks who gathered on a bluff above the boat launch to watch.
Really, if you're going to get stuck at sea in Anchorage, Sunday was a pretty good day to do it. Sun drenched the town, and afternoon temperatures nosed 80 degrees. Joseph, 64, later told reporters he had a radio and a cell phone, plenty of food, water and clothing, and fishing gear.
"I could have stayed out there a week if I'd had to," he said.
Joseph said he tested his engine by letting it run about a half-hour in the boat launch parking lot before putting in at the silty shoreline of Cook Inlet around 10 a.m. It was just the second time he'd turned the engine on this year, he said.
"It seemed to run very good," he said. "It didn't give any indication (of trouble). It just stopped."
That happened some time before 10:45 a.m., when Joseph first radioed for help. He dropped anchor, but the current pushed him about a mile more before the boat finally dragged to a halt, due north off the boat launch near Point MacKenzie.
A passing mariner offered help -- tools, parts. But tinkering didn't get the engine going again, Joseph said.
So the Rescue Coordination Center at Alaska Guard headquarters on Fort Richardson sent firefighters. They keep boats at the Coast Guard facility in Ship Creek and respond to these calls a few times a month, Suenram said.
Senior Capt. John Drozdowski Jr. and firefighters Jim Sterling and Mike Wayt launched and cut a wide arc around the Inlet's notorious tidal currents.
Suenram watched from the shore, looking very GQ in a crisp, black, department-issued polo shirt and sleek black Bolle sunglasses. Two other firefighters -- Mark Glatt and Rich Ranlett -- stood nearby, sipping bottled water.
The boats started as just two barely visible dots on the horizon.
"There's no immediate life hazard here," Suenram said. "The wind is blowing. The tide is going. No point in trying to do this fast."
The fire boat pulled near shore nearly an hour later, just before 3 p.m., tugging Joseph's vessel along. Attempts to get it docked failed as the craft drifted like a tin can in the swirling current. They finally just tied it to the side of the fire boat like a sidecar.
Then, full steam ahead. Ranlett, a tall redhead, scrambled down a rocky slope beside the dock. Joseph tossed a rope to him. When Ranlett started pulling the boat in, a small crowd on the bluff above cheered.
Joseph tried to help, at one point climbing to the back of his vessel and using an oar to paddle -- ineffectively.
"Sir, sir!" Suenram shouted. "Stop!"
Afterward, a glad-to-be-back Joseph said next time he takes a boat out, he'll let the engine run longer first and be a little more patient. Other boaters should do the same, he said.
As for the boat, high tide would deliver it to an accessible position further up the dock. Joseph plans to get it fixed.
"It's a great boat," he said. "I'll head down to Seward when I get it running again."
Daily News reporter Katie Pesznecker can be reached at kpesznecker@adn.com.
