A Sacramento man was rescued off the coast of Mexico after a presumed whale nearly sunk his ship.
(Photo: REUTERS/Micheline Jenner)A whale blowing air up out of the water.It was a whale of tale last week after a man was left stranded 40 miles west off the coast of La Playa, Mexico as his boat took in water. The man, Max Young, was whale watching when his boat began to take in water.
The culprit? Young suspects a possibly clumsy whale may have come too near his vessel and collided with the boat, causing it to take in water.
"He saw some whales, he was whale watching, and then one breached the surface and he lost his rudder, propeller and he was taking on water," United States Coast Guard Lt. Amy Kefarl said, according to First Coast News.
In the grueling three hours it took for the Coast Guard rescue team to arrive, Young was left with thoughts of his possible death.
"He was actually very frantic, this is in the middle of the night, he couldn't see anything. He asked me to tell his wife that he loved her, but we reassured him that help was on the way," Kefarl said.
The Coast Guard, however, was able to make it just in time to save a very grateful Young.
"He said, 'Thank you Coast Guard, I thought this was it,'" Kefarl recalled.
Debra Young, the man's wife, was relieved to have her husband home safe. She told The First Coast News that it has been her husbands dream to sail the world, and he had been doing it bit by bit.
"I'm sad the boat is gone," Debra Young admitted. "But I'm ecstatic he's OK."
Young, 67, has been sailing for over 30 years his wife said. The suspected whale has escaped somewhere out to sea and will not be held accountable for his actions.
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