Fishing vessel sinks, 3 rescued

Men found by Coast Guard 11 miles offshore

Three men were rescued 11 miles off the coast of Crescent City after their fishing vessel sunk Friday afternoon, said U.S. Coast Guard officials.

At 2:46 p.m. Friday Coast Guard Air Station Humboldt Bay received a garbled mayday signal from a distressed vessel named the West Wind, according to Coast Guard officials.

Coast Guard Petty Officers Brian Hampton and Zane Steves, radio operators, were able to make out a latitude coordinate after replaying the transmission several times, but they couldn’t decipher the longitude coordinate, said Coast Guard Lt. Keith Roberts, the pilot of the helicopter used for the rescue mission and Lt. Josh Smith, co-pilot.

Using two different communication towers, the Coast Guard was able to narrow down the location of where the signal was transmitted from, Roberts said.

A coast guard helicopter took flight from Arcata at 3:39 p.m. and located an inflatable life raft at 4:25 p.m. — almost two hours after the mayday call, Roberts said.

Petty Officer Dave Foreman, a rescue swimmer, dropped to the water and swam over to the life raft to check the survivors’ conditions. A rescue basket was then deployed by flight mechanic Petty Officer Brandon Cook to pick up the survivors and the rescue swimmer. The survivors had to briefly enter the water in order to be hoisted, Roberts said. The survivors were on board the helicopter by 4:56 p.m, Roberts said.

“They’re pretty lucky,” Roberts said.

Besides debris, there was no sign of the 46-foot fishing vessel when the Coast Guard helicopter arrived, Roberts and Smith said. There was no sign of a fuel spill either, Roberts said.

Two of the three men were able to put on their survival suits (waterproof dry suits designed to protect against hypothermia), but the captain of the vessel was not wearing one, Roberts said.

The helicopter dropped off the survivors at Jack McNamara Field airport at 5:11 p.m. where they boarded an ambulance, Roberts said.

Scanner transmissions indicated that the man not wearing a survival suit was showing signs of hypothermia and having trouble breathing.

Roberts said the men weren’t sure what caused the boat to sink, but they reported the engine sounded “funny” before the boat sank.

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