3 Commercial Fishermen Almost Die Off Sonoma Coast: Report

SONOMA COUNTY, CA — Three commercial crabbers nearly died Tuesday as their boat came close to capsizing, the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat reports.

On Tuesday afternoon, a 40-foot crab boat called the Susan E was battling 6 to 7-foot swells and winds of about 25 miles an hour, according to the Press-Democrat. The bilge pump stopped working, and water began to flow in. Eventually the boat shut down, and the crew was stranded in stormy waters far off the coast as the boat slowly started to sink.

A witness told the Press-Democrat that the boat was vertical and headed down.

A deckhand on the Susan E called a friend, who was on a nearby boat called the Argo, which took pains to rescue them in the choppy water just as the boat went under. A Coast Guard rescue boat came shortly after to take the Susan E and Argo crews on the roughly hour-and-a-half trip back to the Bodega Bay harbor.

— Read the full Press-Democrat report here.