A Coast Guard petty officer saved an elderly couple from the waters off Southwest Harbor on Tuesday after their skiff capsized.

Calvin Legge, a Coast Guard-certified surface swimmer, dove into the water near Flynn’s Ledge when he saw the couple struggling in the water. The 86-year-old man and his 82-year-old wife, whose names were not released by the Coast Guard, were rowing toward a Coast Guard rescue boat when the skiff capsized.

Lt. David Bourbeau, a Coast Guard spokesman, said the couple, who are from Southwest Harbor, had gotten stuck on a shoal when their 30-foot pleasure craft ran aground off Seawall Point. Bourbeau said strong ocean currents caused their skiff to tip over, sending both people into the water.

When the couple fell overboard, Legge, who was attached to a line on his rescue craft, dove into the ocean and swam toward the couple, who were not wearing life jackets. Bourbeau said it turned out to be a good decision because the Coast Guard learned later that the woman did not know how to swim.

Bourbeau said Legge and other Coast Guard officers train for such emergencies, when there is little or no time to make quick judgments.

“It was really a unique situation and it happened so fast,” Legge said in a press release issued by the Coast Guard. “Before we knew it, their row boat overturned and both people were struggling in the water. We made an immediate decision to send me in to save them.”

The rescue operation began around 11 a.m., when the Coast Guard got a distress call from the couple saying that their pleasure boat had run aground on a ledge about 200 yards offshore. The water around the boat was too shallow to allow Legge and the crew of a 25-foot Coast Guard rescue boat to get the couple off their boat safely. That was when the man and his wife tried to row the skiff.

Legge swam to the couple and helped them board the Southwest Harbor harbormaster’s boat. They were treated by a town rescue crew for minor cuts and bruises, but did not have to be hospitalized.

Cmdr. Jamie Frederick, chief of response for Coast Guard Sector Northern New England, praised Legge and his crewmates for making the right call.

“Both of the survivors were in the water without lifejackets,” he said,” making a dangerous situation much worse. The boat crew’s quick thinking resulted in two lives saved.”

The couple’s vessel was to be refloated at Tuesday evening’s high tide.

Southwest Harbor is a small community on the western side of Mount Desert Island.

Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at:

dhoey@pressherald.com

Related Stories