COOS BAY, Ore. (AP) - Coast Guard officials say the search for a captain who disappeared when a boat with a load of fish overturned has been suspended.
The search ended at 7 p.m. Wednesday after 11 hours.
Coast Guard spokeswoman Rachel Steiner said the Patty AJ capsized Wednesday while making a turn in the channel of Coos Bay. Three of the four people aboard the vessel reached safety while a Coast Guard helicopter, two boats and a dive squad scrambled to find the captain.
Ronald Silva owns and usually skippers the Patty AJ. On Wednesday, however, he turned it over to someone else.
Silva told The World newspaper of Coos Bay (https://is.gd/jHXa8y ) that the man usually skippers another boat: “But it went crabbing today and he doesn’t like crabbing, so he decided to help us out.”
The Bandon and Airport Dive Team finished their search of the Patty AJ late in the morning. Diver Bob Hood said the boat was on its side and completely flooded.
“The cabin door was shut but not locked,” Hood said. “I was able to open it and get partly inside, but it was flooded too.”
He looked through the windows for any air pockets but couldn’t find any. He spent 15 minutes searching for any way into the vessel, but there was too much entanglement with nets and ropes to get in.
“We did the best we could,” Hood said, “but we didn’t find him.”
Wednesday’s incident comes nearly five years after Silva and his Patty AJ crew rescued two fishermen from an overturned boat.
“We got several comments that we were the heroes,” Silva was quoted saying then. “We are not heroes. We were just there. It was our turn.”
Divers placed a buoy in the location of the now sunken vessel.
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Information from: The World, https://www.theworldlink.com
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