HALLS HARBOUR — It’s all in a day’s work for lobster fisherman Mark Taylor.
Taylor, 47, headed back to sea Tuesday, one day after he and two crewmen were dramatically plucked from their sinking fishing boat by a search and rescue helicopter from 14 Wing Greenwood.
"We’re going back out today," he said in an interview while preparing equipment at the Halls Harbour wharf early Tuesday morning.
How’s he feeling about it?
"Pretty good," he replied briskly. "That’s just the way it is. When you’ve been fishing for 30 years, you’re bound to get your feet wet once in a while."
In fact, Monday’s rescue was the second time he has gotten his feet wet while fishing along the rugged Bay of Fundy coast. In 1996, he managed to escape another sinking fishing boat.
Taylor and his crew, Dave Clarke and Roy Sollows, had just set their traps about two kilometres from Cape Split, Monday, when his 11-metre wooden boat, the Eric and Junior III, began taking on water.
"It was a mechanical failure of some sort. I don’t know for sure, but a cooling pipe or something broke off," he said.
"Once the water fills up in the engine room you can’t get it clear, you can’t see down there when it’s full of water and sloshing around," Taylor added.
"When it comes in that fast you just have to get ready to get off," he said. "The pump couldn’t keep up and within 10 or 15 minutes the engine room was full."
The three men radioed for help, donned their survival suits and prepared their life-raft.
Taylor said there were several other fishing boats in the area, including one skippered by his brother, who turned around and was heading back towards the disabled boat.
The Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Halifax dispatched an auxiliary coast guard vessel and a search and rescue helicopter from 14 Wing Greenwood. There was also a Hercules transport aircraft conducting training exercises in the area.
The three men were hoisted from the sinking vessel by the Cormorant crew and minutes later the boat capsized and quickly disappeared under the waves. "She went under just after we got off," said Taylor.
The seas weren’t particularly rough Monday, but the area around Cape Split is hazardous because of the shifting tides. "It’s hard to say where the boat hit bottom," Taylor said.
"Once that Cape Split tide hits, it would drag it along the bottom for miles."
Taylor, who owns a scallop boat and leases three lobster boats, said he had no reservations about heading back to sea. He already has a replacement lobster vessel on its way from Yarmouth.
"It was a close call," he said, but he wasn’t really nervous. "The helicopter was in sight and the other boats were in sight, so it was good that way."
Taylor had some kind words for the crew of the helicopter that rescued the three men.
"They did an excellent job. They were very professional and knew what they (were) doing. We were in pretty good hands."
Dave Clarke, one of the crewmen, said the experience was a first in his nine years of fishing. Asked how he felt about being hoisted from the boat, he replied, "I was glad to see the hoist."
He had no qualms about heading back to sea Tuesday. "Business as usual," he added.
( gdelaney@herald.ca)
‘That’s just the way it is. When you’ve been fishing for 30 years, you’re bound to get your feet wet once in a while.’
Lobster fishermanMARK TAYLOR