# Boat's auto pilot leads two men into a cave in Point Loma - San Diego, CA



## kewl dude (Jun 1, 2008)

https://www.cbs8.com/

Screen Capture Attached: CBS8-SanDiego-Boat-In-Cave

Two men returning after dark from fishing offshore set their auto-pilot then both went to sleep. They awoke only after the vessel sailed into a two hundred feet deep Point Loma sea cave. The cave goes in about 100 feet then turn's 90 degrees to the right before ending at another 100 feet. San Diego Lifeguards responded to a May Day call from the men and rescued them. The boat is still in the cave. The latest report is the vessel has turned turtle. There are more pictures online.

CBS8-SanDiego-Boat-In-Cave.jpg (61.9 KB) 

Greg Hayden


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## Day Sailor (Nov 9, 2014)

They were lucky to get a distress call out of the cave.


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## kewl dude (Jun 1, 2008)

Latest report this evening September 12 @ 2300 local news. The swells and surf have reduced the yacht to "nothing that looks anything like a boat" - largest pieces are around four feet x four feet. The engines rest on the bottom of the cave.

Greg Hayden


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## John Rogers (May 11, 2004)

Its a good thing the Auto Pilot put them though the Hole/Cave, could have hit either side and that would have given them a wake-up call. People like that should have their Boat License pulled.


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## Farmer John (Feb 22, 2012)

John Rogers said:


> People like that should have their Boat License pulled.


Let them keep the one they have until it wears out.


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## harry t. (Oct 25, 2008)

In the 50’s, 3rd mate on an old Baltic trader swinging on the steam whistle halyards every two minutes in thick fog, no radar, no gyro, just D/F and the log rotator aft. Using D/R positions since clearing the Pentland Firth two or three days earlier. After altering course using cross bearings on the D/F from Portpatrick and Mew Is. and the D/R posn. It was assumed we must now be steaming (at reduced speed) up the middle of the lough to the pilot station and our port of discharge. Shortly after this alteration and another long blast on the whistle, it was answered immediately by another up ahead. The old man didn’t hesitate or waste a second, –‘full ahead and hard a port’, the mate and chippy where sent for’ad and the anchor dropped. Later, when the fog cleared, the old man’s family amongst the onlookers on the promenade shouted greeting across the water. Before we got underway, he instructed his family to see to it the engineer on the railway engine was bought a drink for his prompt response to our fog signal. His engine had been coming out of the rail tunnel at the ‘Bla Hole’ and we had been heading straight at it. Duff D/R’s aplenty then.


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

Harry, true or not, that story is absolutely great and so very reminiscent of so many of the tales that were exchanged at sea. Thank you.


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## harry t. (Oct 25, 2008)

Hi and hello Ron, a very true account. 1st trip uncertificated 3rd mate on an old coal burner, spent nearly every hour on watch out on the bridge wing hanging on to those halyards in fog, until they parted during that incident. A twenty two day round trip lasting two months on account of the fog and ice. 
The old man came from Whitehead in Co.Antrim near the rail tunnel at the 'Bla Hole' (Blow Hole), so everyone knew everyone, hence the request to 'buy the man on the end of railway engine whistle a drink' - for saving us from a disaster. Our deck cargo of creosoted telegraph poles would have made one fine mess of the towns seafront and promonade, and the old man would never have lived it down in that wee part of the world. I always remembered it was a bit of quick thinking on his part. I also well remembered the bosun on that lady, Julian, from the Seychelles, who had been there from when she was returned as a war prize, and had no notion of ever going back home.


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