Were it not for the combined heroics of two local boat captains, the Coast Guard and the Police Department, a Mother’s Day eve fishing trip for five Howard Beach natives and one Long Islander might have ended in tragedy in the cold waters of Jamaica Bay.
When the six boaters in their mid-20s set out in Anthony Dattolo’s flat-deck Chaparral at 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 9, the water was “calm,” they said, “like an ice skating rink.”
The 25-year-old Valley Stream resident, confident in his abilities after four years on the water, had checked weather reports and monitored the marine radio channel onboard his boat as he motored out. All signs pointed to go.
Hours later, however, after the boaters had caught a few bluefish and set back for shore, conditions became “the worst I’ve seen in the bay,” Dattolo said.
“I never thought this would happen,” added Dattolo, who had just kicked off the second season in his 25-footer and had with him his girlfriend Lisa Shaver, 24; and friends Jason Damone, 25; Anthony Blas, 24; Danielle Calienbo, 26; and Eric Halka, 24.
Captain Salvatore “Cody” Catapano, at the helm of one of the two rescuing craft, knows that such a feeling of invincibility is all too common on the water.
“It’s within a minute’s time. One minute you’re enjoying yourselves, the next you’re in the water,” said Catapano, the commander and owner of Sea Tow Lower New York, part of a global fleet of service boats “like AAA on the water.”
As a “24-hour captain” with five boats, Catapano knows full well that not all the calls that come through the radio will be from boaters needing a couple gallons of gas or a tow to shore.
Over his 10-year career with Sea Tow, the Brooklyn native, who grew up boating “in a crib on the water in Jamaica Bay,” has rescued 40 people. That tally climbed from 38 shortly after 1 a.m. Sunday, when, as four- and five-foot waves crashed into his boat, Dattolo issued a “Mayday.”
“There was nothing we could do,” recalled Dattolo, a few days after the rescue. “We were just waiting for help.”
At the front of the craft, near the radio, Dattolo was soon up to his waist in cold water – 64-degrees, the same as the air temperature, according to Coast Guard Sector New York. And then Halka fell overboard.
Minutes later, Calienbo’s foot got stuck and she lost her balance and ended up in the bay. Her boyfriend Anthony Blas quickly jumped in after her, leaving Dattolo, Shaver and Damone onboard.
Meanwhile, Captain Dave Paris was out on the bay in his party boat, the Capt. Dave II, with around 60 teenagers.
Equipped with information from non-profit emergency monitoring outfit Citywide Disaster Services and guided by the searchlights of the Police Department’s helicopters – Catapano called the choppers “angels in the sky” – Paris navigated toward the boaters, all of whom had ended up in the water by that point. Paris, himself no stranger to rescues, was the first to reach the capsized boat, about a mile west of the Marine Parkway Bridge.
The water was dark and cold and there was nothing the group could do to keep warm, explained Dattolo, who, along with his friends, was in the water – both in his submerged boat and in the actual bay – for 15 to 20 minutes.
“My adrenaline was rushing and I wasn’t really thinking about it, but hypothermia was definitely settling in,” he added. “Thank God they that they came when they did. A couple more minutes and it might have been too late.”
In fact, New York Coast Guard spokesperson Petty Officer Third Class Annie Berlin said hypothermia can set in rather quickly, no matter how warm or cold the water or air temperature is.
While the Coast Guard launched two vessels to the scene, Berlin noted that Good Samaritans occasionally make the difference between life and death in rescues.
“It happens quite often and we’re very thankful for that,” Berlin said of the efforts of people like Catapano and Paris.
Both captains, with the help of their respective crews, tossed lifejackets and safety lines into the water and yanked all six boaters out of the chilly bay.
On the way to shore, each helped warm the victims – Dattolo was, for a brief time, unresponsive, according to Catapano – before handing them off to awaiting medics in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. Everyone emerged unscathed and even Dattolo’s boat was recovered, though it will need some serious repairs.
A few days after the incident, however, Catapano and Paris downplayed their heroics.
“All I can say is it’s human nature – if you have heart you’re going to do things like that,” Paris said. “If you don’t have heart, you can bypass it and do nothing about it, but I know me.”
“I don’t care who they are,” said Catapano. “If someone needs help, we’re there.” He added that a subsequent reunion between the victims and those who saved them was a very emotional one. One of the boater’s mothers, he said, hugged and kissed him and told him that rescuing her daughter was “the best Mother’s Day gift you can give someone.”
