Goshen boys free stranded boater in New Jersey

When a boater found himself stranded in New Jersey’s Great Egg Harbor Bay late last month, two Goshen residents risked their lives to help him. While everyone turned out to be okay, it was an experience that neither will soon forget.

On the afternoon Tuesday, July 30, Goshen’s Brian Mitchell took his son Anthony, 20, and Rhyse Ruffy, 17, who is dating his daughter, to Beesley’s Point Sea-Doo in Marmora, N.J. In the area on a family vacation, Anthony was on a mission to purchase his first Sea-Doo WaveRunner.

After the purchase, the boys hopped on the watercraft and headed out into the bay. As they were heading back in after a successful maiden voyage, they saw a boater waving them down. As they approached the boat, it became clear that the man driving the boat had mistakenly entangled his anchor line in the boat’s propeller, stranding the boat.

Ruffy, a state-ranked swimmer, jumped into action, literally. Treading water and engaging in only a brief conversation with the inexperienced boater, he began unravelling the line from the boat’s propeller, which was raised out of the water.

“I grabbed onto the prop because it was stuck and tried to get the rope and unravel it manually around the propeller,” Ruffy said. “That didn’t work, so I tried to move and spin the propeller so it would unravel itself. Sometimes it moved but other times I would have to manually push it out and around the propeller to untangle it. I did that about five times.”

As he was slowly making progress and bobbing up and down in the water, he did his best to keep his head above the waves.

“I was watching the waves crash in his face and it became clear he had no choice but to take breaks because he was getting smacked all around,” Anthony said. “It was pretty rough out there.”

Then the blood came.

With adrenaline running, and fixated on the problem at hand, Ruffy did not notice the toll his hands and arms were taking from the propeller.

“I asked him if he was alright and he said he was,” recalled Anthony. “Then I saw him lift his arms out of the water and his hands were painted red. He had one unravel left and I told him to get back here and sit on the jet ski and I will deal with the rest. It is a Trixx jet ski, so it is small and as I went to get in the water, I flipped it over and we were both in the water. He was trying to swim with two cut up arms. I flipped the jet ski back over, helped him in and I did the last unravelling.”

The job complete, Anthony got back on the jet ski and, with Ruffy’s bloodied hands and arms wrapped around him, headed back to shore.

By the time they reached the shore, Ruffy had two blood-stained arms as blood was pouring out of two deep cuts on his knuckles, a long gash on his forearm and several smaller lacerations on both hands.

“I started videoing as I saw Anthony pushing the Sea-Doo in to shore with Rhyse on it when I noticed something on his arms,” said Brian Mitchell, Anthony’s dad. “I yelled, ‘Rhyse, are you okay?’ He was as cool as a cucumber and with a smile he said to me, ‘It’s my blood.’ I said, ‘Your blood? Get over here!’ He told me they helped a boater with a propeller and when I heard that, I started thinking the worst. I counted all 10 of his fingers and we rinsed him off to find out where all of this blood was coming from, and you could see his knuckles just spewing blood.”

From there, it was off to a local medical center where Ruffy underwent a deep antibiotic cleansing and rinsing, was given stitches and multiple wraps. Ruffy ’s mother was kept informed every step of the way via phone.

Back at the house, May Ann Mitchell, Ruffy’s girlfriend, prepared for the worst when she heard the news.

“When I heard what happened I made him plates of food, I made his bed and went to the store with my mom to get a Caesar salad and everything,” said the 16-year-old. “Then he comes home smiling and I saw the video of him with blood all over his arms and everything. I was grateful he wasn’t in extreme pain and that he and my brother helped someone.”

When asked, Anthony and Ruffy said they would not hesitate to do the same thing again should a similar circumstance present itself.

“The calmness and true grit showed by both boys should not go unnoticed,” said Brian, whose brother, George, was also present. “As the witness and father to Anthony, I was so proud of the level of strength and maturity both young men displayed. I am happy to report Rhyse is doing fine. Unfortunately, his vacation barely got going and had to be shut down due to doctor’s orders.”