Point Reyes Light - October 11, 2001

Fisherman lost 3 days shows up in Stinson Beach

By Gregory Foley

A fisherman in a 16-foot boat was lost three days in dense fog off the West Marin coast last week, prompting a massive search by the Coast Guard.

However, the fisherman, Don Kautz, 50, of San Leandro safely navigated his way onto Stinson Beach last Thursday afternoon, landing his fiberglass, open-hull vessel near a house north of the federal beach.

Residents of the house took him in and fed him, Lt. Dale Vogelsang of Coast Guard Group San Francisco said.

"He was just hungry when he came ashore," Vogelsang added. "He got some food, got his boat off the beach, and went home."

Kautz told the Coast Guard that he set off on a daytrip the morning of Oct. 1 from near Chimney Rock in the Point Reyes National Seashore. He planned to fish in a familiar spot near Point Reyes. After 10 minutes offshore, Kautz told the Coast Guard, the fog rolled in, and he started to motor his way back to shore.

Becoming disoriented

However, he became disoriented and decided to drop anchor, but his boat dragged the anchor, and he began to drift, Kautz told authorities.

"He was trying to conserve fuel, so he didn’t keep motoring around," Lt. Vogelsang said.

When Kautz failed to return home from the trip Monday evening, he was reported missing by relatives, Lt. Vogelsang added. The Coast Guard coordinated a wide-ranging search for Kautz around Drake’s Bay and Point Reyes but could not locate him through the low clouds and fog.

The Coast Guard also sent out three 47-foot lifeboats and three cutters, as well as C-130 search planes and helicopters.

Went the wrong way

The following morning, Kautz spotted two cargo ships, but the ships’ crews failed to spot him, he reported. Kautz then tried to motor himself to safety, but accidentally took his vessel more than 15 miles out to sea.

After he realized he may have headed in the wrong direction, Kautz turned off his outboard motor, moored his boat to a crab-pot buoy, and spent a second night at sea, he said.

(Lt. Vogelsang told The Light Kautz reported that he typically carries a VHF radio on the boat with him but did not on this trip.)

Vogelsang explained that Kautz tried to orient himself by the light of the rising sun, but found the fog to be so thick he could not. During his time at sea, Kautz heard several aircraft overhead but was not spotted and had no flares to signal his position.

Lived off ice & raw fish

Kautz used ice cubes in his cooler for fresh water and ate pieces of raw flesh from a fish that he caught, Vogelsang added.

Last Thursday morning, Kautz saw enough sunlight to orient himself and powered his boat to shore. Vogelsang said the Coast Guard learned Kautz had made it to safety when a relative phoned to say she had received a call from him.

Vogelsang noted the Coast Guard’s three-day search covered 3,300 square miles off the West Marin coast. Vogelsang said that Kautz was reported to be in good health after the ordeal but was hungry and thirsty and "didn’t feel much like talking."

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