At approximately 6:20pm Sunday evening, January 24th, Coast Guard Sector Humboldt Bay watchstanders received a distress call from the fishing vessel Sunup stating their vessel had propulsion problems, collided with the jetties while attempting to transit through the entrance channel and was on the south jetty rocks inside the channel.
A Coast Guard Station Humboldt Bay 47-foot Motor Life Boat crew and a Sector Humboldt Bay MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew were immediately dispatched and the Motor Life Boat crew arrived on scene at approximately 6:30pm. The crew found the Sunup mostly underwater retrieved two of the fishermen directly from the sinking boat and continued to pull a third fisherman from the water.
“The situation became grave when the third fisherman fell into the water with the other two c(courtlinging to the sinking vessel,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Ruben Colon, the rescue boat coxswain. “Without a doubt, staying with their vessel until the last minute enabled us to quickly find and rescue them.”
The three survivors were brought to Station Humboldt Bay with no reported medical concerns
