Keith
Guru
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2007
- Messages
- 2,715
- Vessel Name
- Anastasia III
- Vessel Make
- Krogen 42
Incident Report
by Alexander T. Weinert
INCIDENT REPORT #1031004315634
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On 31 October, 2001 from 2030hrs to 2050hrs The United States Coast Guard received a transmission from a 406Mhz EPIRB device registered to the vessel "Ninia." "Ninia" is a 34' sloop rigged sailing vessel, white, registered to James L
and home-ported in Seattle, Washington. While the transmission period was brief, the US and Canadian CG were able to triangulate the vessel's approximate position to the "Broken Islands" in Barkley Sound, B.C. Canadian CG vessel "CCGC Bamfield" conducted a search and on the morning of 28 October was able to locate "Ninia," abandoned at anchor in the vicinity of S Bay but with no sign of her crew, newlywed couple James and Susan L. While searching for "Ninia," the "Bamfield" also located the vessel "Seraph" three (3) miles away at E Bay. The "Seraph" was reported overdue to this station on 25 October, and was also found abandoned at anchor with no trace of her crew, Charles and Louise S. US law enforcement personnel now officially register both crews as "missing persons." What follows is a transcript of the log of the "Ninia" ("Seraph's" log was not found), presented here in the hopes that it can be correlated with other data to provide some insight into what happened to the "Ninia's" and or the "Seraph's" crew.
*
[BEGIN LOG of S/V Ninia]
25 Oct
0900 JL. As wonderful as yesterday was, I think today is even better. We've been watching Seattle - and the stress of the wedding - fade behind us on this crisp fall morning. We're off for our two-week adventure in Barkley sound. This will be a great honeymoon.
2100 SL. Its been a great day (but long!) so far. James wants to sail every minute, but wind is so calm now that we're just motoring along in the rain. I've heard so many horror stories about the Strait, but in this calm getting a damp chill is the worst of it, as long as we avoid the freighters!
26 Oct
0600 JL. Long night, but dawn approaches - seems like finally we're getting a whisper of breeze - maybe we can sail up the coast to Barkley?
1030 SL. Off Pachenka Point. James woke me up with "breakfast in bunk!" He's so great. I know he's having a great time out here sailing but I can't wait till we're at anchor and can spend some "quality time" together! We're sailing along now in a nice breeze and a surprisingly sunny day! James says we're not far from the entrance to Barkley Sound. Tried to call mom and dad but there is no cell coverage out here. Jim says it probably won't work again until we're back in the Straits. Even the radio transmissions are getting weak; mostly we just hear Tofino traffic and the occasional fishing boat.
1500 JL. Cleared customs in Bamfield. Off to the broken Islands in the morning!
27 Oct
1000 JL. Cast off Bamfield gov't dock 30 mins ago. All sail set, ghosting towards the Broken Group.
1600 SL. Its so beautiful here! Amazing weather, especially for so late in the season! Seems like we have the whole place to ourselves.
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1700 JL. Anchored in E
Bay for the night; 40' Cutter "Seraph" anchored nearby. So far they're the only other cruisers we've seen. Looks like the late season tactic is working! If they are still here tomorrow, we'll leave to go somewhere even more secluded. 28 Oct 1100 SL. Convinced Jim to stay late in bed this morning (wink). Jim wants to move on to somewhere more secluded than this - hard to imagine. After lunch I think we'll take a walk ashore before we move on to the next cove. Maybe we'll drop in on Seraph?
1300 JL. House VHF crapping out I think. Tried to get Marine operator and wasn't able to raise them. No answer from radio checks either. I receive WX and handheld tx ok; handheld gets house tx broken. Transmitter?
1800 SL. I convinced Jim to stop messing with the VHF and we went for a great walk ashore. On the way back to Ninia, the crew of Seraph (Chuck and Louise) waved us over. We went aboard for a drink, etc. and had a great time chatting, talking about adventures, etc. I really hit it off with Louise - we chatted forever (to Jim's annoyance I think!). She's very sweet, full of good advice on being a boat wife (or boat widow, as she calls it). She says the only boats they've seen in the week they've been here are ours and an old boat whose owner - a single-hander - dropped in a few nights ago. Louise gave me a cool pen with their boat name and email address on it. Such a great idea! I'll need to get something like that for the Ninia. Jim wants to head over to another cove he has picked out - time to get the boat ready. I'm a little worried about the late start but Jim has confidence in the GPS and radar.
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2300 JL. I don't know how many times I've told myself not to enter a strange harbor at night - but I keep doing it. After tonight, I'll really never do it again! We left E
Bay in late dusk, way too late but I was determined to get to the ideal "secluded cove," and Chuck on Seraph said they planned to stay another day or two. I figured we'd get underway early, but by the time I dragged Susan away from Louise and we got Ninia ready, it was dusk. We struck out anyway. We enjoyed some magical night sailing, just ghosting along at 2-3 kts and paying very close attention to the chart plotter and the radar. As we got close to S Bay, I guess I got careless or too confident, and CRUNCH went the keel on a rock. We were going pretty slow so I don't think there was much damage, but being aground at night on an ebb tide in the middle of nowhere was pretty scary! We were getting pretty worked up, trying to figure out how best to deal with the situation (with a fog rolling in, no less!), when out of nowhere materializes this strange guy rowing an old wooden dinghy. He must've heard us in our "animated conversation." He was wearing an old P-coat. In the dark I couldn't really make out his face, but it was pretty freaky the way the glow of the port nav light made his eyes seem to glow red. Despite the strange appearance and his strange accent the guy put me at ease pretty quickly. He obviously REALLY knows his way around boats. He had us lower down our anchor and a bunch of chain into his dinghy and rowed it out a couple hundred feet to set it. Then he had us take up on the windlass while he pulled down on our boom to heel the boat way over (strong guy!), and we slipped off the rock. Pretty cool! I invited him aboard for a drink but he declined, saying he had other things to do (?!). Weirdest th
by Alexander T. Weinert
INCIDENT REPORT #1031004315634
<font size="2"></font>
On 31 October, 2001 from 2030hrs to 2050hrs The United States Coast Guard received a transmission from a 406Mhz EPIRB device registered to the vessel "Ninia." "Ninia" is a 34' sloop rigged sailing vessel, white, registered to James L
and home-ported in Seattle, Washington. While the transmission period was brief, the US and Canadian CG were able to triangulate the vessel's approximate position to the "Broken Islands" in Barkley Sound, B.C. Canadian CG vessel "CCGC Bamfield" conducted a search and on the morning of 28 October was able to locate "Ninia," abandoned at anchor in the vicinity of S Bay but with no sign of her crew, newlywed couple James and Susan L. While searching for "Ninia," the "Bamfield" also located the vessel "Seraph" three (3) miles away at E Bay. The "Seraph" was reported overdue to this station on 25 October, and was also found abandoned at anchor with no trace of her crew, Charles and Louise S. US law enforcement personnel now officially register both crews as "missing persons." What follows is a transcript of the log of the "Ninia" ("Seraph's" log was not found), presented here in the hopes that it can be correlated with other data to provide some insight into what happened to the "Ninia's" and or the "Seraph's" crew.
*
[BEGIN LOG of S/V Ninia]
25 Oct
0900 JL. As wonderful as yesterday was, I think today is even better. We've been watching Seattle - and the stress of the wedding - fade behind us on this crisp fall morning. We're off for our two-week adventure in Barkley sound. This will be a great honeymoon.
2100 SL. Its been a great day (but long!) so far. James wants to sail every minute, but wind is so calm now that we're just motoring along in the rain. I've heard so many horror stories about the Strait, but in this calm getting a damp chill is the worst of it, as long as we avoid the freighters!
26 Oct
0600 JL. Long night, but dawn approaches - seems like finally we're getting a whisper of breeze - maybe we can sail up the coast to Barkley?
1030 SL. Off Pachenka Point. James woke me up with "breakfast in bunk!" He's so great. I know he's having a great time out here sailing but I can't wait till we're at anchor and can spend some "quality time" together! We're sailing along now in a nice breeze and a surprisingly sunny day! James says we're not far from the entrance to Barkley Sound. Tried to call mom and dad but there is no cell coverage out here. Jim says it probably won't work again until we're back in the Straits. Even the radio transmissions are getting weak; mostly we just hear Tofino traffic and the occasional fishing boat.
1500 JL. Cleared customs in Bamfield. Off to the broken Islands in the morning!
27 Oct
1000 JL. Cast off Bamfield gov't dock 30 mins ago. All sail set, ghosting towards the Broken Group.
1600 SL. Its so beautiful here! Amazing weather, especially for so late in the season! Seems like we have the whole place to ourselves.
<font size="2"></font>
1700 JL. Anchored in E
Bay for the night; 40' Cutter "Seraph" anchored nearby. So far they're the only other cruisers we've seen. Looks like the late season tactic is working! If they are still here tomorrow, we'll leave to go somewhere even more secluded. 28 Oct 1100 SL. Convinced Jim to stay late in bed this morning (wink). Jim wants to move on to somewhere more secluded than this - hard to imagine. After lunch I think we'll take a walk ashore before we move on to the next cove. Maybe we'll drop in on Seraph?
1300 JL. House VHF crapping out I think. Tried to get Marine operator and wasn't able to raise them. No answer from radio checks either. I receive WX and handheld tx ok; handheld gets house tx broken. Transmitter?
1800 SL. I convinced Jim to stop messing with the VHF and we went for a great walk ashore. On the way back to Ninia, the crew of Seraph (Chuck and Louise) waved us over. We went aboard for a drink, etc. and had a great time chatting, talking about adventures, etc. I really hit it off with Louise - we chatted forever (to Jim's annoyance I think!). She's very sweet, full of good advice on being a boat wife (or boat widow, as she calls it). She says the only boats they've seen in the week they've been here are ours and an old boat whose owner - a single-hander - dropped in a few nights ago. Louise gave me a cool pen with their boat name and email address on it. Such a great idea! I'll need to get something like that for the Ninia. Jim wants to head over to another cove he has picked out - time to get the boat ready. I'm a little worried about the late start but Jim has confidence in the GPS and radar.
<font size="2"></font>
2300 JL. I don't know how many times I've told myself not to enter a strange harbor at night - but I keep doing it. After tonight, I'll really never do it again! We left E
Bay in late dusk, way too late but I was determined to get to the ideal "secluded cove," and Chuck on Seraph said they planned to stay another day or two. I figured we'd get underway early, but by the time I dragged Susan away from Louise and we got Ninia ready, it was dusk. We struck out anyway. We enjoyed some magical night sailing, just ghosting along at 2-3 kts and paying very close attention to the chart plotter and the radar. As we got close to S Bay, I guess I got careless or too confident, and CRUNCH went the keel on a rock. We were going pretty slow so I don't think there was much damage, but being aground at night on an ebb tide in the middle of nowhere was pretty scary! We were getting pretty worked up, trying to figure out how best to deal with the situation (with a fog rolling in, no less!), when out of nowhere materializes this strange guy rowing an old wooden dinghy. He must've heard us in our "animated conversation." He was wearing an old P-coat. In the dark I couldn't really make out his face, but it was pretty freaky the way the glow of the port nav light made his eyes seem to glow red. Despite the strange appearance and his strange accent the guy put me at ease pretty quickly. He obviously REALLY knows his way around boats. He had us lower down our anchor and a bunch of chain into his dinghy and rowed it out a couple hundred feet to set it. Then he had us take up on the windlass while he pulled down on our boom to heel the boat way over (strong guy!), and we slipped off the rock. Pretty cool! I invited him aboard for a drink but he declined, saying he had other things to do (?!). Weirdest th