On Monday morning a 16' aluminum boat with three fishermen headed out into the ocean in thick fog. Some reports said they came from Lawson's Landing but we have no record of them launching here. A caller today said that he thought he saw them launch from Westside Park in Bodega Bay. Either way, at a little after 9:00 AM a 20' Bayliner headed out of Tomales Bay to go fishing discovered a body floating inside the bar and notified the Coast Guard. By about 10:30 the victim had been recovered and brought to our pier by the Marin County Fire Department and a search began to find any other victims or survivors. The fog was moving in and out around noon and luckily there was an opening during which the only survivor was spotted and rescued. Then the fog slid back in. As of this writing they haven't found the third fisherman. The boat ended up on the beach in Coward's Cove, just inside of Red Rock. We don't know what happened to cause the boat to flip over, but seeing where the boat ended up, they probably caught the wave on the end of Tomales Point, similar to what happened to our Mr. Gerbi last month. Clearly, they were not as lucky.
A few boats from here went out for bluefin yesterday but of the two boats that went all the way (two of us turned around in the chop) no bluefin were caught. A few were caught by boats out of Bodega Bay, so the fish are still there. The mackerel were harder to catch and a smaller grade (5"-7") but were still at Elephant, just shallower (65-80 feet of water). I launched at 7:00, finally made bait by 8:45 and turned around at 9:45. Rockfishing has been a bit slow in the shallower water but there are a lot of fish out in 150 to 180 feet. Alec Bennett caught a 25 pound ling cod yesterday, so anyone should be able to catch a big one out there. No sea bass this week.
3 comments:
How big was the boat?
Check the first sentence of the report.
Willy I'm sure these reports are not easy for you, as they effect all of us who fish and boat in this area. I can't tell you the amount of times I see boats heading out that are not enough boat for the conditions. If I'm turning around in my Montauk I know it's hairy, and I still see lesser boats trying for it. One day's bait costs can get you a decent PFD. Prayers to the families of those lost.
Outlaw
This is the best report that I've read on this accident. The only thing the newspaper reports seem to want to convey is that the victim wasn't wearing a "life jacket". But they don't mention that he was wearing a float coat! Ironically that's the type of pfd that the rescuers were probably wearing, not "life jackets". It's an unfortunate mistake since it leads to the usual torrent of victim blaming by the sanctimonious commenters. Oh well. And thanks as always for the great write ups Willy.
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