Tony Rahn
For a moment yesterday morning, lobster man Tony Rahn thought he was finished. Rahn, 63, was laying traps off Odiorne Point State Park in Rye about 7:30 when the line he was working got wrapped around his hand and yanked him overboard — backwards — with all his gear on. “I almost saw the white light,” he said during an interview at his Portsmouth home. “If it was around my wrist, I don’t know if it would’ve come off or not.” But luckily for Rahn, the line came off once he hit the water, ensuring the attached lobster traps wouldn’t pull him down as they sank. But Rahn still struggled to stay afloat, his boots and bib quickly filling with water. “Either I get the boots off or I become lobster bait,” said Rahn, who was fishing alone. Rahn, an experienced diver and veteran lobster man, got his boots off and swam to a large lobster buoy nearby. For 20 minutes he waited on that buoy, yelling for a help as a friend’s boat passed by and his own 18-foot vessel, the Erica Mart, drove in circles. By that point, the situation was calm enough that Rahn wasn’t even yelling “help.” “We actually passed the gentleman on the way out and didn’t even notice,” said Rich Guida, 43, of Stratham, who along with his friend Tom Cordy pulled Rahn from the water. “It was just someone yelling ‘Hey.’” Lobster man Tony Rahn demonstrates how a line wrapped around his hand and pulled him overboard. Cordy, a recreational lobster man who knew Rahn from fishing, said once he saw Rahn’s boat going in circles, he realized the “heys” were actually for help and quickly spotted Rahn on the buoy. Cordy, 38, of Stratham, then radioed for help and pulled his boat around to aid Rahn. They brought him onboard just as state Fish and Game officials arrived. “He didn’t seem phased by it at all and he said, ‘We gotta get my boat,’” Cordy said, noting that a couple more circles and Rahn’s boat would have hit the rocks. The approximately 30-minute ordeal cost Rahn his fishing bib, his boots, his cell phone and just a bit of his pride. But rather than head home to lick his wounds, Rahn said he figured he needed to pay for the lost gear and so just kept on fishing. With no extra bib or boots, Rahn said he just pulled his traps in pants and socks. “It was a good day,” he said. “I got over 70 pounds. They’re going to pay for this experience.” The good luck didn’t end there. Cordy said he stayed out and ended up bringing a few lobsters and some fish himself, a notable catch for him. “I’m a terrible fisherman, but I love going out on the water,” he said. Rahn, a retired physical education teacher, said yesterday he was lucky to be pulled from the water so quickly and that things could have ended much worse. He said it was the first time he went overboard since a boat he was on capsized in 1993 or 1994 while he was under the Sarah Long drawbridge. Fish and Game Conservation Officer Bill Boudreau, who arrived on scene shortly after Rahn was pulled from the water, said about three fisherman have gone overboard during the past year. One died. He said fellow fishermen are always quick to respond and Rahn was lucky to have so much help nearby. “It can be a dangerous job,” he said. “There’s a lot of things going on out there and a lot can go wrong.” Rahn said the accident was a “fluke,” but he still expects to get a fair bit of ribbing over it. He has promised Guida and Cordy lobsters for their save, and they intend to collect. “Tony promised me some lobsters and I’m gonna find him,” Guida joked yesterday.