On Sunday evening, just after 7:00 pm, U.S. Coast Guard Sector Humboldt Bay responded to a report of a 35 ft. commercial vessel fishing that had lost propulsion near Humboldt Bay.
A crewmember aboard the fishing vessel Elly notified Coast Guard Sector Humboldt Bay watchstanders at approximately 7:10 p.m., that their vessel was sinking near the south jetty of the Humboldt Bay entrance channel.
The watchstanders dispatched a Coast Guard Station Humboldt Bay 47-foot Motor Lifeboat crew and a Coast Guard Air Station Humboldt Bay MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew to respond.
The Dolphin crew utilized a direction-finding radio to find the vessel’s emergency position-indicating radio beacon and located a debris field in the surf line south of the jetty guiding them to the vessel’s life-raft and crew on the beach.
The helicopter crew lowered the rescue swimmer to evaluate the condition of the crew. One crew member with a reported head injury was medevaced to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Eureka. The two uninjured crew members were retrieved by a Humboldt County Sheriff’s Deputy that had also responded to the scene.
“This case is a great example of how having the right survival equipment aboard and being proficient in it’s use saves lives,” said Cmdr. Brendan Hilleary, the Sector Humboldt Bay chief of response. “The vessel’s crew recognized the severity of their situation, made a distress call on their VHF radio, activated a properly registered Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, wore personal flotation devices and abandoned ship into their life raft. They did everything right to help our crews get to them quickly and accurately.”
