Oct 2021: An elderly couple departed Fripp Marina on two kayaks in mid-afternoon for a paddle under the Fripp Bridge and back. With an outbound current and incoming waves, the conditions near the sandbars at the outer portion of Fripp Inlet were treacherous, and the couple were separated near the Boneyard on Hunting Island Beach. The wife turned her kayak for the riprap off Porpoise Drive, and called 911 upon reaching shore. Her husband was tossed off his kayak in the pounding surf, and the kayak cut his head and hand in the process. Losing strength in the cold water, he was barely able to hold on to the kayak, and was not able to kick his way back to shore. R1 was dispatched along with assets from Fripp Island Fire Department. The fire crew got to a high vantage point on Porpoise Drive and directed the crew of R1 via radio to the kayak. The crew on R1 brought the man and his kayak on board, and he was quickly returned to Fripp Marina to the waiting arms of EMS personnel for evaluation.  He was cold and banged up, but after recovering made a generous donation to FISR with a personal note for his rescuers which said, "Thanks for saving my life." 

Summer of 2022: We rescued a total of 7 boaters (including 3 children) from two boats that grounded at speed at low tide on separate nights: one on Skull Creek in July and one on the mud flats off Story River in August. Luckily there were no injuries, and we enlisted the aid of "Airboat 1" and her crew from our sister agency Beaufort Water Search & Rescue. In both cases, with both organizations literally working hand-in-hand, the passengers were seamlessly transferred from Airboat 1 to Rescue 1, then transported to Fripp Island Marina to be reunited with their families well after midnight. Certainly better to spend the night home in bed rather than on a grounded boat! Many thanks to Beaufort Water Search & Rescue for quickly rendering mutual aid immediately upon our request for both of these rescue cases.

September 2022: As Hurricane Ian was bearing down on the South Carolina coast, a small commercial dock construction barge and tow skiff became grounded on the sandbars outside Skull Inlet. R1 was dispatched and rescued the two crewmen in very rough conditions from the barge and transported them to Fripp Marina just before dark to be reunited with their families. The barge was anchored on the sandbar and the skiff tied to it, but overnight heavy surf and strong winds in advance of the storm caused the skiff to break free and crash on a rock groin on Fripp Island, and the barge drug anchor, relocating a hundred yards down the shore. The next morning R1 and crew went out and towed the barge into safe harbor in Skull Creek, and then towed the wrecked skiff to Fripp Marina, all before the strongest winds and waves from passing Hurricane Ian came ashore.