Father and son saved

LIHU‘E — The fact that Terry Sasahara and crew happened upon Robert Fain and Jim Fain in waters three miles off Kaua‘i earlier this month was:

For the Fains, the correct answer is E. The Fains, father Jim, 49, and son Robert, 15, had taken up fishing after Robert suffered a brain hemorrhage and needed a recreational activity to replace surfing.

Robert Fain is scheduled to have brain surgery in November.

Off they went from Nawiliwili on a bright morning, bound for a fish-aggregating device (FAD) about four miles off Kaua‘i. Things started out great after they saw birds congregating in a spot near the buoy, and got double ahi strikes simultaneously.

After reeling the first fish about three-quarters of the way to the boat, the hook came out of the fish’s mouth. While maneuvering to get to the other pole, Robert Fain lost his balance and fell into the ocean.

Jim Fain, of Jim Fain Masonry, tried to grab his son, and without even thinking that the boat was in gear, jumped into the water after his son. After making sure his son was OK, he tried in vain to catch up to the boat, which was making its way back towards Kaua‘i without its crew.

He went back to his son, and prepared for a long swim back to the island. Neither of them was wearing a life preserver, only shorts. Jim Fain figured they were three to four miles from Kaua‘i, and was using Kalepa Ridge in Hanama‘ulu as a reference point during the swim.

“We were swimming and praying at the same time,” looking, hoping and praying for a boat to come by, Jim Fain said. During that time in the water, Robert Fain thanked his father for jumping in after him. “It wasn’t the smartest thing you ever did, but it showed me how much you love me,” Robert Fain said, Jim Fain recalled.

After about three hours in the water, Robert Fain spotted a boat. Aboard Sasahara’s Lori-J-Lin, named for Terry Sasahara’s daughters, Mel Yamase had already spotted two swimmers with no boat in sight.

“It was the most beautiful boat I had ever seen,” said Jim Fain of Sasahara’s craft. “God answered our prayers.”

Yamase tossed flotation devices to the swimmers, while Sasahara maneuvered the boat into position to bring the two aboard. Once aboard, they were offered food, water and towels. Jim Fain recalled wanting to thank Sasahara by name, but Sasahara initially wouldn’t tell Jim Fain his name. “It was amazing how they were genuinely concerned about our well-being,” Fain said of his rescuers.

The rescuers wouldn’t have been in the position they were in at the time they were there had it not been because they had a boy on board, Terry Lozano, 12, of Mililani, O‘ahu, Sasahara’s grandson, who was nauseous and tired and wanted to return to shore after catching his fair share of aku (three).

“So we owe a debt of gratitude to his grandson as well,” Jim Fain said while meeting with the Sasaharas and Yamases at Oki Diner Monday afternoon.

“We didn’t have to swim to shore,” but were prepared to do so, Jim Fain said.

Once the Lori-J-Lin crew established that there was no one else in the water, the search turned to locating Fain’s boat. Jim Fain had watched the direction his boat moved after being separated from it, so knew it was heading toward shore. He was afraid it would run aground.

Warren Nonaka on his boat assisted in the search and rescue, too, Sasahara said. Less than an hour later, Fain’s boat was located, with fishing line wrapped around one of the propellors of the twin-engine boat so that it was making small circles in the water. Another stroke of luck, or divine intervention, Jim Fain figured.

After Jim Fain removed the line from the propellor, he promptly drove the boat back to Nawiliwili as fast as he could.

The incident was “a wake-up call for me,” Jim Fain said. He feels God was telling him it’s time to take it easy with his son in advance of the November brain surgery, he said. “It was a traumatic experience.” He has tons of gratitude to God “and these folks” for coming along. They were “used by God to save us,” Jim Fain said.