Likely most, if not all, of you have seen Salton Sea on a windless, cloudless day looking placid as a mill pond. Some of you have seen it as a small scale version of "The Perfect Storm" with winds from all directions at near or hurricane strength and waves head high or better. And a few of you have seen these conditions while on the water on a moonless night searching for boaters who thought they and their boats were bigger than Mother Nature.

It was to rescue these people that the Drake Sea Ranger came to the Park in the mid 1960s. It closely resembled boats built for Los Angeles County Lifeguards and was built in the Los Angeles Harbor area.

• Hull: Fiber glassed Plywood
  
• Length: 32 feet
  
• Beam: 10 to 12 feet
  
• Freeboard: About 3 feet
  
• Fuel Capacity: About 100 gallons of premium gasoline
  
• Fuel Consumption: About 100 gallons per 8 hour patrol shift
  
• Speed on plane: High 30s to low 40s MPH.
  
• Engines: 2 Chryslers with marine application modifications of the mid 400 CID rating, fresh water cooled. Messages from some of you suggest they were originally salt water cooled that led to corrosion in the water jackets eating it's into cylinders and a new engine. At an unknown date the engine cooling was converted to fresh water with that water run through a heat exchanger where it was cooled by sea water pumped from the Sea, run through the exchanger and pumped out through the engine exhaust system.
  
• Bunks: Two in the forward cabin
  
• Toilet: Marine, taken out of service and sealed closed
  
• Towing Bit: Aft of the operator's seat and forward of the engine compartment access.
  
• Searchlight: Mounted on the Towing bit, a surplus Navy signal lamp powered by a small gasoline powered generator on board and used for night searches
  
• Miscellaneous: Code 3 equipment and lights on the port and starboard bow to search ahead.

How many boats and how many lives did she save? Unknown to me. What pictures I have can be found below this message.

Aloha,
Jim Davis

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