F/V Ocean Challenger, Part 3

Sand Point, population 940, is in the Aleutian Island chain, 570 miles southwest of Anchorage. Residents there said the weather had been severe with unpredictable hurricane-like winds. The Aleuts call the general area "The Mother of Winds”. According to Trident Seafood cannery manager Armand Audette, “The weather has been day to day a moving target. On Tuesday, it changed very radically. Right now our harbor is chock-full with boats because of the weather.”

“It’s come as kind of a shock to us, we are all affected by this kind of thing. We are pretty tight-knit group here. I do think they were caught off guard by the weather," continued Audette, "I guess everyone knows there are risks. There is peril whenever you go out in rolling seas," he said. The close-knit fishing town is devastated at the loss. "There is the feeling that there but for the grace of God go I."

The boat, a longliner home-ported out of Adak, had been fishing for black cod near the Sanak Islands and was traveling back to the Aleutian fishing town of Sand Point when it disappeared.said vessel owner, Barry McKee. The 50-ton fishing vessel’s home port was Westport until 2005. It was sold that year to Barry McKee of Seattle, whose company is called the Omega Boat Co.

What happened? Until the Coast Guard releases their findings (which could be as long as a year or more), or the survivor, Kevin Ferrell feels up to speaking of it, we can not be certain. We do know the boat was headed for port, possibly “running with the seas.” She could have taken a rogue wave. Depending on the distance between the waves - and that can be critical, she could have taken water across her bow and had a following sea come over her stern, all at about the same time. This could have caused her to founder, her load of fish to shift, the hatch cover come off and took water into her hold. She could have been riding up a swell when her stern was hammered with a following sea, causing her bow to dig into the swell. Her scuppers could have clogged and the deck held the water. Anything is possible.

God bless them and their loved ones.

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