Sheriff's Helicopter, Coast Guard Rescue Boaters Off Sonoma Co. Coast

Four people were rescued from a disabled 21-foot pleasure boat near coastal rocks in the Stillwater Cove area of Sonoma County north of Jenner Saturday evening, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said.

The Bayliner boat appeared anchored between offshore rocks and the surf line around 6:40 p.m., but the condition of the four people aboard was unknown, the sheriff’s office said. The sheriff’s office’s Henry 1 helicopter assisted the U.S. Coast Guard and State Parks lifeguards were dispatched to the scene.

The helicopter crew arrived within 10 minutes and used a l00-foot long line to place a paramedic aboard the boat.

The helicopter crew was concerned the pending darkness and incoming fog would hinder a rescue, and the Coast Guard’s motor life boat, which was about 20 minutes away, would be unable to access the boat because of rocks in the area, the sheriff’s office said.

Three of the four boaters were taken to shore by the helicopter, and the fourth stayed on board to control the boat while State Parks lifeguards towed it away from the rocks to the Coast Guard boat waiting in deeper waters, the sheriff’s office said.

The Coast Guard towed the boat to Ocean Cove, and the boaters were taken to a Coast Life Support ambulance for evaluation, the sheriff’s office said.

--Bay City News