SEKIU — A man from the Tri-Cities area rescued two fisherman Wednesday after their fishing boat sank in Clallam Bay near Slip Point.
The boat sank at about 4:46 p.m., said Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound Petty Officer Joseph Jackson.
The Coast Guard did not know the cause of the sinking and did not identify the two men. The men had been rescued by the time that Coast Guard personnel arrived, he said.
Howard Cooper — who said only that he was from the Tri-Cities area, which includes Kennewick, Pasco and Richland — said he was docked at the Olson’s Resort docks doing boat maintenance on his small sports boat, Tight Lines, when he saw a commotion in the parking lot.
He heard one of the people looking out across Clallam Bay say, “It’s going down.”
“What’s going down?” Cooper responded.
When he heard a boat was needed to rescue the crew, he said, “I got a boat.”
By the time Cooper maneuvered around the resort breakwater and across the bay, he could see only the top rigging and a small curve of the inverted hull.
Both fishermen were in the cold, rough water — one of them still near the rocks and another swimming to within 100 feet of the beach, Cooper said, adding that the man was trying to swim through thick kelp.
Cooper brought the two men back to the resort dock.
“They were so cold, they just marched up there and went to get on their pickup and into a hot shower,” he said.
The men drove away before anyone in the area could get their names, or before emergency medical technicians arrived from the Clallam Bay Fire Department.
Tasha Dawley, who works at Olson’s Resort, told the Coast Guard on the phone that the boat was from 30 to 37 feet long.
The name of the boat, as seen from the shore, appeared to be North Pass.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
Donna Barr is a freelance writer and photographer living in Clallam Bay.
