Update:
The Coast Guard announced about 1 p.m. today that it has suspended the search for two Port Angeles fishermen lost on the Strait of Juan de Fuca since Friday night.
Earlier report:
PORT ANGELES — Two men remained lost at sea in the Strait of Juan de Fuca on Saturday evening after Navy and U.S. and Canadian Coast Guard personnel failed to locate them or their boat after nearly 24 hours of searching.
The Coast Guard expected to continue searching today for Brook Bennett, 38, and Rob Larsen, 42 — both Port Angeles residents who work at the Port Angeles Hardwood mill on Eclipse Industrial Parkway — in 200 square miles of water from just west of Freshwater Bay to Dungeness Spit.
The two men are believed to have left the Boat Haven in Port Angeles to fish for salmon in Freshwater Bay at 6 p.m. Saturday in Larsen’s 14-foot-long boat.
They were reported missing five hours later by Bennett’s wife, Tammy Bennett.
“I’m very, very concerned,” she said.
“He normally doesn’t go out in a boat like that, especially on the other side of [Ediz] Hook, and start in the dark.”
George Rixon, a lifelong friend of Larsen, said Saturday afternoon that he feared both men had perished.
“I’ve got a bad feeling in my gut,” he said. “It’s just a bad deal all the way around.”
Small boat
An avid fishermen himself, Rixon, 42, said the westerly winds blowing through the Strait on Saturday were far too dangerous for Larsen’s boat.
He was doubtful that the men had life jackets on board, he said.
Searchers hope to find the men alive, said Thomas Brown, Coast Guard operations unit specialist, adding that they don’t know what safety equipment the men had.
Rixon called Larsen a dedicated worker and a great friend, describing him also as stubborn.
He said Larsen doesn’t have a wife or children.
Tammy Bennett said she didn’t sleep at all Friday night after she realized her husband hadn’t come home.
She spent much of Saturday driving between the Boat Haven marina, where her husband’s truck was parked, hoping that he would show up, and her home where family members, including their four children, waited anxiously.
The couple is also raising their 17-month-old granddaughter.
“I just want to know where he is,” she said, choking back tears.
Two cutters and a helicopter from Port Angeles, two cutters from Victoria, and a Navy helicopter from Whidbey Island are all participating in the search.
Anyone with information on the men’s whereabouts is asked to phone the Port Angeles Coast Guard station at 360-417-5840.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
