[unclebilly]

I saw this briefly on the news this morning and can relate.

On July 1 1995, I was commercial fishing off Tofino. It was opening day of the Salmon Trolling season and we had just recently taken the boat back from some idiots who had leased it from us for Shrimp fishing (we had salmon and shrimp licenses on that boat).

I was about 5 miles off shore and we had just got the gear in the water. I went into the cabin to use the head. When I came back out a few minutes later, the lazarette had about a foot of water in it. My new deckhand asked if this was 'normal'... clearly it was not.

I swung the boat around toward Tofino, called in a Mayday to Coast Guard, and we pulled the gear as fast as we could. Coast Guard had us put on our survival suits. USGC sent up a helicopter from Neah Bay as well to assist. Canadian coast guard out of Tofino sent out their life boat and 2 zodiacs. The boat did not have sealed bulkheads, I had a hold full of ice and full fuel tanks.

We made it to Lennard Island, at the entrance to Tofino harbor where I met up with the first of the zodiacs. The chopper returned to base - I don't know how close they got. When I was on the deck talking to the Coast Guard guys, the engine sucked water and hydraulic'd bending one connecting rod.

They got 2 trash pumps on the boat, and towed us into Tofino. All this happened before 10:00AM.

I spent the day cleaning up crap, spraying the electric stuff with WD-40, and unbolting the engine (Bedford 466 Diesel). We pulled the engine and gear (marine transmission), hauled it home, pulled the head and pan and removed the bent rod, found a replacement (before this stuff was on the internet), circulated the water out of the gear (this was a big ordeal), and got it back together in 2 weeks.

The source of the leak was an access panel that the guy who had rented the boat removed for smuggling (likely) which was not put back. The panel was way under the checkers and there was no reason to check if it had been tampered with. The bilge pump in that section had failed, the scuppers (deck drains) were pretty low and once they got under water, the hull filled pretty quickly. I did cram my rain gear in the scuppers to slow the leak and this played a role in our rescue.

I can relate to the guys who were rescued. It was pretty nervous for a guy in his early 20s running a boat off shore...