Tag Archives: Salmon Creek Beach
A Fishing Vessel Ran Aground at the Sonoma Coast. Could It Have Been Saved?
It was nearing midnight and too dark for captain Chris Fox to see the land or determine how far offshore he was. But he knew he was too close. The water was shallow. The F/V Aleutian Storm was on a sandbar. Fox needed help. The engine and all other onboard systems were still working, but Fox knew he could hold the 57-ton fishing vessel only so long before the waves drove it ashore. Fox radioed the U.S. Coast Guard for help, which wasn’t immediately forthcoming—not in the way he had hoped, at least. The February loss of the Aleutian Storm is the latest controversy surrounding the Coast Guard’s local response to grounded vessels. While the details of each emergency are unique, they are viewed with similar frustration and pain by some who believe more could—and should— have been done to save them from breaking apart on land. Still, critics like veteran Fort Bragg fisherman Chris Iversen, a friend of Fox’s, sense déjà vu in the pattern of lost vessels—each briefly in a position for a possible save only to later run aground. Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 14:34
Salvage crews complete recovery of Aleutian Storm, and find a surprise
The last of the wreckage of the Aleutian Storm has been hauled away from south Salmon Creek Beach after final salvage operations that yielded a surprise about the boat’s construction that helps explain some of the challenges when it ran aground. An unusual, 4-inch thick and 4-foot-wide slab of steel that ran 36 feet along the bottom of the commercial fishing vessel’s keel may be the reason it was immovable after it grounded in the surf Feb. 9 south of Bodega Dunes Campground, a representative of Parker Diving Service said. “It anchored that vessel into the sand so when they were either trying to turn it and pull back to sea in those first couple of days and have a tug tow it, it kept snapping the line,” Nunn said. “I know the owner tried desperately to get it back to sea.” Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 06:31
