By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — The two men aboard a 30-foot sailboat that very publicly ran aground off Compo Beach say it wasn’t much of an adventure.

Whether that’s a sea story in itself, you decide.

Meet the skipper, Ron Ryzoff, a Vietnam vet and retired surgeon who moved to Westport a little over a year ago. On Sunday, he had a big bash for his 90^th birthday with 50 friends and relatives.

His mate on Wednesday’s voyage was another recent transplant, Robert Rosencrantz, a retired dental surgeon, 82, formerly of Linwood, Mass.

They were attempting to bring Ryzoff’s 30-foot Pearson sailboat, the Andiamo, from Norwalk Cove Marina, where it spent the winter in shrink wrap, then getting a new coat of paint for its hull, to a slip at the Cedar Point Yacht Club on Saugatuck Shores.

They embarked on the same transit the Sunday before, but fog was very thick outside Norwalk Harbor.

“We turned around and came back,” Ryzoff said.

Wednesday, it was smooth sailing until what Ryzoff called something of a perfect storm.

“It wasn’t rough at all until we came into Westport harbor,” he said. “We didn’t have the sails up — we were under motor.”

A channel marker might have been missing or he missed it.

“There were a bunch of lobster traps I was trying to avoid,” Ryzoff said. “The depth gauge said 16 feet, 16 feet, 16 feet — all of the sudden we hit a rock.”

Run aground.

Ryzoff said he’d been there before.

But with the wind now gusting 40 knots or more, it was difficult to maneuver the vessel away from the rocks. The winds didn’t allow turning around or backing out.

Ryzoff called his insurance company first, because it includes maritime towing, like the AAA of the sea.

“The worst part was the insurance people,” Ryzoff said. “They were more interested in statistics and where I was, and the people, instead of calling for some help.”

“That took at least 15 minutes,” he said. “If a boat had gotten there 15 minutes after it had happened, they would have been able to pull me off.”

His insurance company’s towing service, BoatUS, was busy with another salvage, he said. Local police were called (Westport’s marine unit was not yet up and running for the season). Someone notified the Coast Guard, the Norwalk Police Marine Unit and Sea Tow, another maritime towing outfit.

So, the two waited, as the tide got lower and ship listed more and more.

Ryzoff’s got some salt in his cap — he was an Army field surgeon in Vietnam, and started sailing after his tour of duty ended.

“I returned from Vietnam having grown up in the mountains in New Jersey,” he said (a captain who served from 1967-68 at the Third Field Hospital in Saigon). “I had an invite to join a practice on Long Island and I said, what am I gonna do? You know what, I’m gonna sail. I bought a book, and the first week I was back I bought a 19-foot boat and I’ve been sailing ever since.”

When the Norwalk Police Marine Unit arrived, Ryzoff and Rosencrantz were able to climb aboard the rescue boat from the bow of Andiamo.

Wednesday, the grounded sailboat quickly became a short-lived attraction at Compo Beach. Some beachgoers hiked the jetty, and then the sea-slimy rocks beyond, to check out the boat and take photos.

Rosencrantz said getting the centerboard stuck wasn’t all that eventful.

But the ride in the Norwalk Marine Unit’s rigid inflatable boat — the kind Navy Seals and other outfits use — was the real adventure. Speeding fast, bouncing the waves. Sea spray.

“I thought I’d need to get my fillings replaced,” Rosencranz said. “I asked, ‘How fast does this thing go?’ They said about 50.”

The Norwalk Marine Unit men, he said, were fun guys to be around, and did their job very well.

Sea Tow, at high tide late Wednesday, was able to haul the Andiamo to Cedar Point Yacht Club.

“No one was injured at all,” Ryzoff said.

And the boat appeared to have little more some gashes in its hull.

“It’s a 1985 Pierson 30,” he said. “They used a lot of fiberglass in those days.”

Thane Grauel grew up in Westport and has been a journalist in Fairfield County and beyond for 35 years. Reach him at editor@westportjournal.com. Learn more about us here.