Small Town News

Making "lost at sea" personal

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Morgan's Musings

Individuals lost in a tragic accident usually mean very little to anyone unless you know the person(s) involved.

This happened last week when I was surfing the net, searching for an on-line newspaper to read. The Seattle Times had a few short paragraphs about a four-man, 19-foot sports fishing boat that was long overdue with all hands aboard off the northern tip of Vancouver Island. The dateline was Winter Harbour. We're speaking Canadian here, mates. It's a small fishing camp, about a five-hour drive and water taxi ride north of Nanaimo, British Columbia.

We first drove to Tsa-wassen, south of Vancouver, from Bellevue, by ferry to Namaimo, north to Port Hardy and the water taxi ride to the resort. We fished hard for three days in open boats, with the next landfall -- China. I don't recall the size of the catch but we did bring home salmon and halibut.

Our group continues to fish there today, but it becomes smaller every year when someone drops out.

I was the first. This is a young man's sport: being out in a 19-foot aluminum boat for 10-12 hours with no facilities, pounded by the Pacific Ocean every foot of the way, normally having excellent fishing and then doing the same drill the next day. By the end of your trip -- exhausted! I read the few paragraphs about the incident but thought no more about it until that evening, when I began to wonder if the boat had been found. Searching for a 19-foot aluminum boat in the North Pacific is more difficult than looking for a needle in two or three haystacks. A number of online newspapers from Prince Rupert, Nanaimo, Victoria and Vancouver embellished the story I had read earlier in the day. The boat was last contacted about 9 a.m. on Aug. 2. The weather conditions at the time were fog, and the seas began to build.

Each day the search was expanded until, on the final day, it covered the entire west coast of Vancouver Island and to the International Boundary in the Straits of Juan de Fuca.

One week later, Aug. 8, the search was called off after search crews discovered a floating life jacket and three others stowed in a locker below deck.

. "We were aware that one life jacket was not being worn, but we weren't sure whether the others were or not," explained the Canadian Coast Guard Now we know."

While composing this column I received a call from old fishing and hunting partner Fred Dunlap, who told me that they had been at the resort and had eaten supper with the fishermen who were lost. Fred has fished the area for about eight years, and he told me that a "funny" thing happened out on the ocean that first day.

"After fishing for halibut close to shore we moved to deeper water for salmon," he said. "A school of humpback whales came through while we were salmon fishing, and some were very, very, close. This had never happened before. These whales are about 30 feet long, and they might have been the reason the boat capsized."

They fished for halibut while the water was rather "flat" in the morning, and when the seas began to kick up, they headed for deeper water and fished for salmon. In the evening, when the missing boat didn't return, fishing trips were cancelled for the rest of the week.

Another theory is that the boat, with plenty of floatation for a 19-foot boat, could have overturned in high winds, which occurred later in the day. "We heard them communicating with another boat later in the day," said Fred. The anchored boat was found by another sports fisherman about 1p.m. on Saturday, five days later.

"The survival models gave eight hours of survival time and six hours of functional time where they could potentially tread water," the CCG said. "Without a life jacket, you're not going to be able to stay afloat -- there is no chance of survival at this point."

The incident is now being handled by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as a missing persons case.



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© 2011 The Star Grand Coulee, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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