Air Force PJs are truly remarkable.  Although it is many a young man's dream to become a PJ (pararescue jumper), training by the government is 18 months, extremely intensive and expensive, with a weed-out rate of over 90%. Below are two rescues, one of the sailing vessel Satori in the October 1991 extreme nor'easter known as "the perfect storm"; and the other of a family with a baby in a 1994 storm off the coast of North Carolina.  Here is the Leonard family's own account of Satori's rescue (the boat was renamed the Mistral in The Perfect Storm movie).

Below, the non-negotiable wave from The Perfect Storm movie.  Ship captains must decide whether to sail around a storm system or ride up the faces of the waves so as not to have them capsize the boat.  How much fuel will be used either way affects the decision.  The October 1991 nor'easter was a convergence of three storm systems, also known as "a hundred-year storm" -- the storm of a century.