A Coast Guard helicopter found Marin City residents Long Vanlam, 42, and Tamhuygn Jhuyynh, 31, keeping warm beside a fire on the remote stretch of beach at 6:20 a.m., more than three hours after receiving their distress signal.

An emergency radio beacon, which is designed to begin transmitting when a boat capsizes, must have been manually set off by the fishermen, said Chief Petty Officer Rick Woods of the Coast Guard. Their boat, Sunrise-1, never flipped over, he added.

"They were in fine condition," Woods said. "No problems."

Sunrise-1 was not as fortunate, however. By mid-afternoon Thursday, large chunks of the wooden craft were bobbing offshore, and bits debris and gear were strewn along roughly a mile of beach.

Some opportunistic Bolinas residents hiked down to the beach and made off with some of the unlucky fishermen's catch of rock fish.

Bolinas auto mechanic Buck Meyer told The Light he looked out over Agate Beach Thursday morning and said what "appeared to be hundreds of fish" lying along the shore.

"People were picking up fish and hauling them home and eating them," he said.