Crime & Safety

Rescued Los Altos Windsurfer 'Tough,' Says Husband

Cathy Caton was perhaps the perfect rescue target for a persistent Coast Guard search effort.

It was, as U.S. Coast Guard officials would say later, the kind of thing they train for.

And Cathy Caton was, if such a thing can be said, the kind of rescuee they can only hope for.

When they found the 62-year-old windsurfer from Los Altos 13 hours after she went missing, the water as smooth as glass and birds were bobbing on the surface at dawn Tuesday. And there she was, too on her board, chipper and in good spirits.

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Caton, an experienced windsurfer, got into trouble Monday evening when her sail mast became separated from her board some time after she set out from the East Third Avenue shoreline in Foster City. But her ocean-grade wetsuit and focused thinking are what made the difference, her husband, Steven Hamman, said.

"She's tough," said Hamman, who was up all night at the Coast Guard command post and then walked the shoreline by the San Mateo-Hayward  Bridge. "The main thing is if you can stand the water temperature—she could have been in the ocean."

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Coast Guard officials said during a press conference at its base at San Francisco International Airport that her gear made all the difference. Caton was equipped with a life vest and a 5-millimeter-thick wetsuit, more than sufficient for the low water temperature, which they estimated was 70 degrees overnight.

“She was in an excellent state of mind,” said Coast Guard Petty Officer Gabe Pulliam, who pulled Caton out of the water and into the helicopter. “And she was wearing the right gear.”

Hamman and Caton often go windsurfing from that point in Foster City and had gone out around 5 p.m. Monday. Hamman said he took his board out a minute or so after Caton launched. "She was more to the north, about 200 yards away from me," he said.

He came in separately and didn't see her. He scanned with his binoculars from the beach and tried to assess her whereabouts. He called 911 around 6:15 p.m.

"There was only about 1½ hours of daylight, which worried me," he said. "The other problem was the wind had died."

That lack of wind and the approaching darkness made it impossible for him and other windsurfers, who look out for one another, to go out and search on their own. Otherwise, he would have as well, he said.

"It was a bad situation," he said. "It was worrisome."

Hamman, who was interviewed at the couple's Woodland Acres home, fielded calls Tuesday morning from friends, and politely declined requests for interviews with his recuperating wife. He said he spent the long hours Monday night and Tuesday morning, thinking about the tides and his experience.

Windsurfers think differently from the Coast Guard in terms of where windsurfers might end up, he said, given the conditions that they encounter, and how they might be pulled by the tide's ebbing and the flooding of the bay. They were actively thinking of ways they could search if there were light.

The pair are experienced, active sports people. Caton skis in freezing temperatures in Canada and both have windsurfed for more than 15 years, Hamman said.

Caton wears a long wetsuit, because she wants to be prepared, Hamman said. Others might wear a shortie wetsuit, "because they think they're just going to have fun for a half hour," he said, but not her.

"Things go wrong in windsurfing," Hamman said. "Equipment fails, winds die. You can have a long swim."

And with all the things she did right, things, indeed, went wrong, he said. For example, both he and Caton were wearing freshly charged radios, he said. But hers, which she tested before going out, ran out of juice 15 minutes after she got in trouble.

Then there is human judgment. Her sail mast became separated from the board. The pair has multiple sail masts and had used a different  mast base connector that wasn't made for the sail, Hamman said.

"Don't use bad gear," he said, that's the lesson. It was a small mistake that made the big difference.

Hamman watched Caton's helicopter rescue through his binoculars, as she was found atop her board when the sun came up. "I watched them pull her out of the water," he said. "The water was like glass; you could see the birds on the water."

How did she spend that night? "She was pretty focused on swimming and getting in," he said. When the tide ebbs, you can't do much because the pull is so strong, he added. But when it floods, you have a chance.

At one point earlier, a boat got within 50 feet of her, and she'd yelled, but "boats can't see you," he said.

Yet she never despaired in those 13 hours overnight, he said.

"She was focused on getting to shore; she had a board, and she was looking for a way to get there," her husband said.

He praised the Coast Guard for its dogged, persistent response, in trying everything they could think of overnight, putting vessels into service at night, and in the overall response to his wife's disappearance.

"They did a great job," he said. "They were dedicated."

Millbrae Patch Editor David Carini contributed to this report


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