SALEM — Some boaters who dared to take to the stormy sea learned a hard lesson yesterday as at least seven mariners had to be rescued, including some who were pulled from the water.
The trouble began as a fast-moving severe thunderstorm barreled through the North Shore yesterday evening, producing strong winds and heavy rain.
Russ Austin, assistant harbormaster in Salem, said he received three distress calls within the span of five minutes at the height of the storm.
"I pulled two brothers out of the water from their capsized sailboat at the height of the squall," Austin said. In addition, three people near Haste Island were pulled out of the water, and two boaters were rescued from Eagle Island near Marblehead after their boat flipped over.
Austin said calls came in about 7:30 p.m. while he was on routine patrol.
A person on the Winter Island dock called to report the sailboat flipped over and the two boaters were clinging to the vessel.
They couldn't get the sail down in time, and a sudden gust of wind flipped the boat and dumped them in the water.
The 19-foot sailboat ended up sinking three-quarters of the way down in the Winter Island mooring area. The boaters, brothers Doug and Harry Wilson of Beverly, were not injured.
As Austin pulled the two brothers aboard his boat, a second call came in that a 22-foot sailboat was in distress somewhere in Salem Sound off Haste Island with three people on board.
The boat's engine malfunctioned, the sails were inoperable and the vessel was in danger of being hurtled onto the rocks, Austin said.
With the two Beverly boaters aboard, Austin responded to search for the second distress call, along with the Beverly harbormaster on duty and a Coast Guard Auxiliary crew out of Danvers. Bruce Clarkson was the captain of the Coast Guard crew.
The auxiliary crew found the boaters — Mary Crockett, 30, of Somerville; Joel LeBlanc, 28, of Somerville; and Glen Saindon, 28, of Beverly — and brought them aboard the rescue vessel. The trio's 22-foot sailboat was towed back to one of the harbormaster's moorings.
Details from the Marblehead rescue were not available last night, as the harbormaster on duty could not be reached.
Austin said the storm had been predicted for some time as the band of thunderstorms moved from the Great Lakes region yesterday. But not all boaters heed the warnings.
"(Boaters) don't always monitor the correct radio channel, and when they see the sky deteriorate, they don't react as quickly as they should," Austin said.
Not all boating problems yesterday were storm-related. A boater in Danvers reported a small electrical fire aboard the boat. The fire was quickly extinguished.
