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Lifeguards pick up swimmer, manage small craft 'chaos'
by Robb Fulcher
The siren song of the USS Elliot proved irresistible for one U.S. Navy veteran who, failing to secure a shuttle boat ticket, swam out to the destroyer in the fog, wearing heavy cotton sweatpants and eyeglasses on a string around his neck.
"The fog rolled in and we never saw him go out," said Los Angeles County Lifeguard Capt. Bob Moore, who works in Hermosa. "Apparently the tickets sold out Sunday morning, and he saw the ship and he just had to get out there."
The man, who appeared to be in his 50s or 60s, made it to the Elliot, where Navy personnel deemed him not strong enough to swim back to shore.
"Someone on the ship called 911 from a cell phone, which gets the Highway Patrol," Moore said. "The Highway Patrol called us and said, 'Do you guys have a big ship out there somewhere?'"
Lifeguards then contacted a Redondo Beach Harbor Patrol vessel, which went out to Elliot and picked up the swimmer.
"The surf was so small they just dropped him at the surf line. I watched him swim to shore using an elementary backstroke, and when I saw him come out of the water with three-quarter sweatpants, the gray kind that get heavy, and his glasses around his neck, I thought, 'Oh man, we were lucky,'" Moore said.
"He wasn't your usual pier-to-pier swimmer," Moore added.
Lifeguards spent much of the weekend aboard the Baywatch rescue boat, trying to control the awkward mix of small boats, kayaks and paddleboards swarming Elliot.
"It was nerve wracking for us because the kayaks and paddlers were out farther than they're usually allowed, and we were busy trying to prevent collisions. We had a couple of close calls, but luckily we had no collisions," Moore said. "So I guess it was organized chaos out there."
Still and all, the presence of Elliot magnetized the lifeguards as it did the rest of Hermosa.
"For us it was an attractive nuisance in one sense. But people did the right thing, trying to get out there," Moore said. "It was a real morale booster having such an impressive piece of equipment off our shores." ER