Mine was a windsurfer at the Golden Gate. We were outbound and the AB on the fo’c’sle called up to the bridge to say he saw a man in the water ahead. It was getting onto dusk so light was failing and there was a 3-5’ sea running with an ebb tide against a west wind. This guy had apparently broken the mast on his board and dove to cling to it for dear life. No way in hell he could paddle back to shore so he was being carried out on the tide and was already a good 1/2 mile to the seaward side of the bridge before we saw him.
Hove to and called down to him with a megaphone we’d stand by until the USCG arrived. Took about 30minutes for them to show up and we had to do a bit of backing and filling to stay in position. But never lost sight of the man and saw him get hauled aboard the crashboat before we continued out to the pilot station. No question at all that we were probably the last chance that man had before it became too dark for him to be spotted by anyone and how likely have died of exhaustion and hypothermia in the night.