Get the latest news delivered daily!

Get the latest news delivered daily!

Have you spotted the foo-foo pink boat helping stranded Long Beach area boaters?

The Long Beach team of TowBoatUS — the Boat Owners Auto Club — has transformed one of their familiar red boats into a floating message of breast cancer awareness for the month of October.

Captain Mike Del Grande and deckhand Ricky Birks, team members at TowBoatUS Long Beach, have been surprising recreational boats that break down on the water and need help getting home by arriving via a pink boat.

Gold membership is $200 a year and it includes 24-hour on-water towing, jump-starts, fuel delivery and soft ungroundings.

Only five local TowBoatUS companies were selected nationwide to “Go Pink.” In addition to Long Beach, there are pink TowBoatUS boats in Port Isabel, Texas; Baltimore/Annapolis, Maryland; Lake Wylie, South Carolina; and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., according to Captain Del Grande.

Unlike Sea Tiger — the submarine in the 1959 movie classic “Operation Petticoat” where some leftover red and white primer paint mixed, resulting in a pale pink primer — the Long Beach TowUS boat has a professional wrap of a bright pink that can be seen for miles.

“We have been attracting plenty of attention, and boaters don’t recognize us at first,” Birks said during a cruise around Alamitos Bay.

Del Grande shared how he has personally been affected by breast cancer, as the bright pink vessel cruised past Mother’s Beach.

“I want people on the water to see our pink boat and think about getting checked for not just breast cancer, but any cancers,” Del Grande said. “My grandma survived breast cancer, one of our closest friends survived, and we know many others who have also survived because of early detection. That’s the key in having our boat turned pink during October and I know it will help to remind people that early detection is key to winning this battle.”

“Seeing the TowBoatUS  is great reminder for early testing,”  local sailor Mike Gebb said in an interview, sporting a pink Breast Cancer awareness shirt printed with “Her fight is my fight.” Gebb, who keeps his boat in Alamitos Bay Marina added, “Being there to support treatment is also key.”

“It is a rare moment to see a pink boat on the water, let alone one that you have called to assist you with a routine breakdown,” BoatUS vice president of Towing Services John Condon said. “We want to use our boats to bring a message of education and awareness of this disease to those on the water to help save lives and find a cure. It has caused so much pain and anguish, not only within our fleet but for our members as well.”

Lynn Duffy, breast cancer survivor and three-time cancer survivor, stressed that exercise and finding a support group is also important. Duffy is active with the Los Angeles Pink Dragons, a group of paddlers.  She joined the group in 2006, has served as team captain and is currently the group’s treasurer.

“While early detection is key, getting back to living is important and paddling with fellow survivors for me is more than social,” she said. “It is a way of life.”

“Wonderful,” is how Long Beach Chief Lifeguard emeritus Richard Miller described the new floating awareness boat. Miller, who lost daughter Melissa to breast cancer in 2003, believes in supporting locally charities when it comes to finding a cure.

One in eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime, according to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

To help boaters learn more about the disease, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that women should consult their health care provider to make informed and shared decisions on screening options. Although breast cancer screening cannot prevent breast cancer, it can help find breast cancer early when it is easiest to treat.

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

Get the latest news delivered daily!