Search For Two Missing Mariners Resumes Sunday

PHOTO: The Sonoma County sheriff’s helicopter, Henry, 1, locates a 21-foot pleasure vessel that went missing on Friday. Photo courtesy Friends of Henry 1.

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By Bay City News Service:

U.S. Coast Guard crews Sunday resumed the search for two people who went missing following a boating accident Friday evening near Tomales Bay, according to a Coast Guard official.

Two of the four people who were aboard the 21-foot pleasure craft have already been confirmed dead, Coast Guard Lt. j.g. Amanda Faulkner said.

Faulkner said crews suspended the search around sunset Saturday but the National Park Service and the Marin County Fire Department would continue searching along the shoreline on Sunday.

Faulkner said the four passengers were going fishing and had set out around 5 a.m. on Friday from Bodega Bay in Sonoma County.

When they didn’t return around 5 p.m. that evening, Faulkner said the sister and the girlfriend of the boat’s owner called the Coast Guard to report them missing.

• Previous: Two Dead, Two Missing in Tomales Bay Boating Accident

The girlfriend told authorities the owner of the boat was an experienced mariner, Faulkner said.

Around 10:30 p.m. on Friday, the Coast Guard reached out to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office for assistance in locating them. The sheriff’s helicopter crew found the missing boat, which had overturned in the rocks near Tomales Point in Marin County, around 10:15 a.m. Saturday, according to sheriff’s officials.

Faulkner said emergency crews found one person dead on the shoreline at Bird Rock and found another person dead in a debris field off of Tomales Point. Emergency crews also found an engine in the debris field that authorities believe is from the missing boat, Faulkner said.

Faulkner said Coast Guard crews did not receive a distress signal from the vessel and said it’s unclear what happened to the boat. The Coast Guard is extending its condolences to the families of the deceased, Faulkner said.

“Suspending a search is never an easy decision and is only done after intense scrutiny and evaluation of search efforts as a whole,” Coast Guard Capt. Greg Stump said in a statement.

Faulkner said it’s critical that boaters emphasize safety whenever they go out onto the water.

“We’re stressing the importance of having a plan, checking the weather and always bringing a life jacket,” Faulkner said. Although authorities aren’t sure whether or not the boaters were wearing life jackets, Faulkner said 84 percent of all drowning incidents occur without life jackets.

The National Park Service will be conducting an investigation into the incident, she said.