A 362-foot-long Washington State ferry and the Coast Guard rescued six people and two dogs after a wave smashed the windshield of their 37-foot Axopar in the San Juans earlier this week, shorting out the boat’s electronics and cutting some of the passengers.
The Coast Guard in Bellingham says it got a distress call from the boat asking for help just before their fixed VHF radio shorted out. The crew on the Axopar was able to give the Coast Guard their GPS position, which was on Rosario Strait near Decatur Island.
The seas were running at 4 to 6 feet at the time, and the Coast Guard says the winds were 20 knots with sustained gusts of 30 knots.
As it turned out, the Washington state ferry Samish heard the distress call and was not far away. It got to the Axopar before the Coast Guard and launched a small boat that rescued four people from the Axopar. A Coast Guard fast response boat then rescued the other two, and the dogs, named Buster and Belle.
The Samish positioned itself upwind, to provide some protection, while the Coast Guard put its own people on the Axopar. They then drove it to Anacortes on its own bottom. “It was pretty nasty out there,” said Petty Officer First Class Travis Magee.
Read more at https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/coast-guard-washington-state-ferry-crews-rescue-boater dogs/6EGE7SZABBDCFFSDFPUWUSLGPU/ and see the video below:
