Deputies Chris Corn, Sean Scoles and Bert Copeland were underway in a Department fireboat on a routine patrol in early March.

The sea was calm and sky was clear. The weather was warm enough for Deputies Corn and Copeland to wear shorts for the first time this year. Deputy Scoles was still in long trousers; winter is technically still with us. All three know that the relatively quiet winter season will soon end and the busy spring and summer boating season will begin. 

Throughout the year the Department’s Harbor Patrol provides all law enforcement services on the water and they serve as the only marine firefighters in the county. In winter they also provide the services undertaken during the summer by city and state lifeguard boat crews.  If there is a winter rescue  requiring that requires a boat, it is Harbor Patrol responds. 

The patrol area for the Department vessels based in Newport Beach  from the Huntington Beach Pier south to Main Beach in Laguna Beach.  The county is responsible for anything that happens up to three-miles offshore.

In summer, the entrance to Newport Beach harbor is often clogged with boats.

“You name it. We are out here with everything ranging from multi-million dollar vessels to boats that barely float,” said Corn, the senior deputy aboard.

On this morning there are only two vessels in the harbor entrance; an eight-foot Sabot sailboat and the Catalina Flyer, a 500-passenger ferryboat, the largest catamaran of its type operating in this area.  The two vessels leave a narrow path for Deputy Copeland to steer through.  By the law of the sea, the eight-foot Sabot under sail has the right of way.  

Copeland is in training, he joined the Harbor Patrol two weeks earlier. He has been with the Department for 15-years and the spent the last three years as a Tactical Officer at the Department Academy.

For Deputy Corn, the Harbor Patrol assignment is a dream come true.

“I look back at the time I spent working the jails and out on street patrol and I think to myself, look where I am now, it was worth it,” remarks Copeland while looking out over the water with it’s countless anchorages of luxury craft and shore lined with some of the most expenses homes in the world. 

The three deputies coat themselves with sun block.

“Skin cancer is a real issue out here, we have to prevent it,” Corn said.

The crew is preparing for an upcoming exercise when they will conduct joint operations training - with the U.S. Coast Guard. The object of the operation will be to share their techniques for boat safety boarding and inspection with an awareness of current Homeland Security concerns.

Corn points to the Catalina Flyer and mentions that not long ago the vessel lost an engine returning from a run to Avalon. He had to side tie the Department Fire Boat to one of the passenger vessel’s hulls and help it maneuver into its dock.

A pod of three porpoise breaks the water not far from the port side of the boat near the end of the jetty that lines the mouth of the harbor.

Just outside the mouth of the harbor and to the south is an anchorage where boaters live on their boats, which are moored to the bottom of the sea not far from Corona del Mar State Beach.

From October to May the boaters are permitted to moor in the harbor for just 60 days. Over that time they must move out of the harbor. Half a dozen boaters have found the anchorage just outside the harbor is the place to reside. 

Lines of lobster traps are just to the south of the anchorage.

As the Fire Boat re-enters the harbor a loose lobster buoy is sighted dragging a line. The boat is taken alongside the buoy and hauled aboard. At the other end of the line is a non-commercial hoop net trap holding a tiny lobster.   The lobster is thrown back into the water. Hoop nets must be tended at all times and this one is untended.

“It’s a hazard to navigation,” Deputy Corn said. A boat propeller could easily be fouled in the line. A disabled boat in that location could be smashed up on the rocks of the jetty.

Immediately inside the harbor is Pirate’s Cove, recognized by millions of television fans as the beach where the S.S. Minnow was shipwrecked for the long popular Gilligan’s Island series.

A little farther into the harbor and Deputy Scoles points to a herd of eight sea lions, floating with fins in the air.

“The difference between seals and sea lions is the ears. The seals have interior ears, sea lions have small flaps,” Copeland  said.

Many of the local boats have lawn chairs or buckets lashed to the lowest decks to block access to the craft by the sea lions. The protection works, sometimes.
“They’re dirty, they can make a boat filthy,” said Deputy Corn.

Suddenly, Corn picks up binoculars and peers at a small skiff off on the port side near the Balboa Ferry dock.

“There is no visible registration,” he said. The boater has the registration on the inside of the boat. The boat has valid registration. The registration and the boater’s driver license is run through state computers by radio.

The deputies discuss some of the local work being done on boats, piers and property and the workman on the  boat brings the deputies up to date on the all the latest news.

They let him go with a warning. Many of the workboats have the registration numbers on the inside because the ones on the outside of the boat are too frequently rubbed off when the boat is side tied to another craft.

 As the boat goes farther into the harbor a man in a dingy next to a large sailboat hails the deputies.

He’s a Canadian and the captain of a boat out of Gibraltar. He complains that his craft was sideswiped the night before by a charter boat that did not stop.  A side ladder was damaged in the collision. A deputy on patrol the night before had taken a report.

“It was like a hit run,” the Canadian complains. He did get the name of the craft and spoke with the owners later.

Deputy Corn explains what will happen. The deputy who took the initial report will have to review the facts.  Any decision to prosecute will be made by the District Attorney and such a decision would take several weeks to make.  The man notes that the deputy the night before had given him a business card with contact information. 

As they go deeper into the harbor, Deputy Copeland remarks on how glad he is to have been assigned to the Harbor Patrol.

“I’ve been with the Department for 15 years and I feel like I’ve just changed careers,” he said. “That’s the beauty of our Department, there are so many different opportunities. If you want to fly, we have helicopter pilots. If you like the water, we have the Harbor Patrol. We have horses and motors.”  He said working for a small police department would mean a career of doing essentially the same thing for one’s entire career.

Deputy Copeland said he was glad to go to Harbor Patrol because here is the opportunity to work in all facets of a first responder. Harbor Patrol officers fight marine fires and enforce marine laws in addition to criminal laws.

Another expired registration is sighted.

“It’s my brother’s boat,” the boater announces. It turns out that boat does have a valid registration but the sticker has not yet been affixed.

The boater questions the deputies about the “crackdown” on speeding in the harbor. A dialogue begins and Deputy Corn denies there is a crackdown.

“We get a lot of complaints about big sailboats making large wakes,” Deputy Corn explains. He notes that there is no complaint about small sailboats having races in the harbor, the problem is with boats over 25-feet  racing and causing wakes that are dangerous to life and property.

The boater notes that he is against large vessels making large wakes inside the harbor.

Bidding farewell to the boater, the crew proceeds to follow up on an incident from the night before reported by Newport Beach police. A woman had been arrested for causing a disturbance and apparently being under the influence.  She had been with a man on parole for a drug conviction but he had not been found after the woman’s arrest.

The crew finds the parolee’s boat tied to a pier on Lido Peninsula.  They observe it for a time and then pull up next to it. Substances believed to be drugs are found and the man is arrested.
He is taken back to Harbor Patrol headquarters. One deputy will take the arrested man to Santa Ana for booking. The other two will return to the boat to impound it.

The Log reports that Proud Mary's Restaurant in Dana Point will be rebuilt. Harbor Patrol helped fight the fire. Click here for The Log story.

Harbor Patrol undertakes a wide variety of duties on the water. Here is there activity report from last year:

2007 Statistics:
Arrests   51                             Debris Recovery:  186
Citations 262                           Field Interviews:  102
Recovered Vessels: 254            Back Up (960):  303   
Accidents Investigated: 89        Guest Vessels:  1,135  
Boater Assistance: 1,001          Guest Extensions:  1,749
Hazardous Material: 139           Foot Patrols:  449
Vessel Fires:  12                      Citizen Assists:  588    
Mooring Duties:  1,451             Assist Outside Agency: 593
Rescues:  249                         Boat stops: 1,111
Emergency Responses: 219     Tours 119  
Deaths:           1                     Speaking Assignments:   97
Patrol Checks           3,917
Weather Reporting          11,823        

CALLS FOR SERVICE
In 2006, OCSD Harbor Patrol responded to or our units initiated 5,070 calls for service (approximately 500 (10%) were “emergency calls” which required immediate, rapid response).  The calls were received as follows:

Via phone – 2,088 (does not include multiple calls for the same incident)

Via Marine Radio (VHF-12/16) – 480

Citizen “walk-ins” – 268

Deputies observed – 1,360 (does not include boat stops)

Station assignments/other - 874