Point Reyes Light - September 27, 2001

Fishing boat wrecks near Bolinas

By Gregory Foley

A commercial fishing boat with two crew members aboard ran aground and broke up in the surf Saturday morning at Wildcat Beach north of Bolinas in the Point Reyes National Seashore.

The ruined boat spilled hundreds of pounds of fish and a small amount of diesel fuel, said salvager Tim Parker of Forest Knolls.

Petty Officer Christian Allaire said that the Coast Guard station at Fort Baker at 1:24 a.m. received a distress call from the crew, who by then were offshore of West Marin.

"They came in on the distress frequency calling, ‘Coast Guard! Help!’ but there was no further information at first," he said.

The crew later sent out more urgent broadcasts that were not understood because they were in Vietnamese. In addition, the transmission was broken. Finally, there was a call that said, "Mayday! On beach!"

Allaire said that the station immediately sent a rescue boat and a helicopter to the scene, and when the rescuers arrived, they spotted a flare from Wildcat Beach and found the crew safe on the shoreline.

Bow broke off

The vessel, Tiger-N-Ocean, was a 1959-vintage, 38-foot, wood-hulled fishing vessel from Bodega Bay. It ran into the beach bow first and rolled flat onto its side in the surf. The bow of the vessel broke off before rescuers reached the scene, one witness said.

Assistant Supt. Frank Dean of the National Seashore told The Light park officials were called around 3 a.m. and dispatched a Park Service fire team to the beach. Wildcat Beach is easily accessible because of a road that leads to a park campground there.

Dean said the two Vietnamese fishermen – boat owner Dan Nguyen and crewman Quoc Hue Luong, both of Sonoma County – were driven to the park’s Bear Valley Headquarters for questioning and then released.

The vessel was completely destroyed by the pounding surf, Dean said, noting that seagulls had a "field day" feasting on hundreds of pounds of rockfish that spilled into the shallow waters from the ship’s hold.

"It was completely broken up by mid-morning," he said. "We’ve hauled the debris out of the surfline and will have to have it taken out."

Minimal fuel spilled

Dean said that park officials during the incident had "no concern about large amounts of fuel" leaking into the area but nonetheless want to find out how much diesel actually escaped.

Parker Diving Services was called in by the Coast Guard to remove fuel tanks and hazardous materials from the partially-submerged boat before it broke up.

Parker of the salvage company said that he successfully removed the boat’s oil containers and two nearly empty fuel tanks before the vessel "disintegrated" during the operation. He noted that the boat was in disrepair and had "probably seen its life span."

Parker estimated that five to eight gallons of diesel fuel spilled into the water, along with 800 to 1,000 pounds of fish.

"I think [the fuel tanks were] pretty empty when it hit the beach," he said. "If they weren’t out of fuel, they were close to it."

Exact cause uncertain

The exact cause of the wreck remained uncertain this week. Parker noted that he believed the boat was under power when it hit the beach or else would not have struck bow first.

"Maybe they fell asleep, but I think it had some power when it hit the beach," he said. "If it was drifting it would have come in at a different angle."

Coast Guard Petty Officer Allaire said that a marine safety officer was conducting an investigation to determine how much hazardous material leaked and whether negligence was involved. A state Fish and Game officer this week was also investigating the incident.

‘Human error’

Dean of the National Seashore said that he was informed that the incident resulted from human error.

"I heard the boat captain went below deck and told the other guy to set a course, but he deviated from that," Dean said.

Dean noted that boatwrecks along the Point Reyes peninsula are common but are costly to the park. He said that although the Coast Guard typically assists in funding the cleanup of hazardous materials, it does not pay for the removal of wrecked boats from federal land.

"The Park Service is usually left holding the bag, and sometimes these things get really expensive," Dean said. "Most of these boat owners have no insurance, and they just walk away. It’s kind of a recurring problem for us."

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