SAN FRANCISCO — US Coast Guard crews suspended their search late Wednesday (July 15) for three people missing a day after a boat capsized in the cold, choppy waters of San Francisco Bay while carrying 20 family members and friends who went out to scatter the ashes of a loved one.
"Suspending a search is one of the hardest parts of our job and our condolences are with the families of all involved," US Coast Guard Captain Jared S. Toczko said in a statement.
Ralph Boisa said his extended family and a few close friends were on his younger brother's boat Tuesday afternoon to celebrate the life of his daughter who died over a decade ago and was in her 30s.
His older brother, Clifford, died shortly after being pulled out of the water. Sixteen others were rescued as the cabin cruiser was hit by a wave, took on water, listed heavily to one side and rolled over before sinking. Clifford's dog also died.
The three people missing are his sister Carol, Clifford's wife Jackie, and his daughter's friend, he said.
"We've gone through a lot of tragedy over the years," said Boisa, who lost his other daughter in 1995. He lives in Washington and couldn't make it for the excursion.
Crews searched more than 2,108.3 square kilometres, according to the Coast Guard, and suspended their search "pending further developments".
Toczko previously said he would not dismiss the possibility that those missing could still be alive, though he also said some could have been trapped inside the three-deck, 15-metre cabin cruiser.
"We do know individuals were in the main deck and potentially below deck," he said. Witnesses described seeing people pounding on glass windows, trapped as the boat sank.
Crews have identified the location the boat sank but have yet to determine how deep it sank, Toczko said.
Once the boat is located, officials will send either divers or an underwater drone to determine if it's feasible to salvage it, said San Francisco Police Commander Brien Hoo.
If the boat is under 37 metres of water, it would be difficult for divers to get to it, he said.
Witnesses reported "rough seas", San Francisco Fire Department Chief Dean Crispen said, and rescuers said swells reached up to 1.5 metres. Marine weather conditions, however, didn't warrant a small craft advisory from the National Weather Service.
Fire department spokesperson Lt. Mariano Elias said the vessel, named Volare, was registered out of Stockton, California, which sits at the eastern edge of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
According to the ship-tracking website VesselFinder, the boat departed a San Francisco marina, passed under the Golden Gate Bridge twice and visited Angel Island State Park, the largest natural island in the bay.
It was on its way back to San Francisco when it sank near Alcatraz, the famous maximum-security federal prison which closed more than 60 years ago.
Kirk Miller, an experienced local sailor with a master mariner license, said an uneven distribution of passengers could have caused the Volare to tip.
"As it rocks in the waves, it leans over a little bit," Miller said. "And as it leans over, the stability would decrease. If you had weight down below it acts as ballast. There was nothing in the conditions that were extreme in any regard. There was no massive gust of wind, no huge wave."
Two men who jumped into action while fishing for halibut said the boat that sank was more than capable of being out in the bay. Justin Marceline and Michael Montoya said they saw what they thought was smoke and arrived to find the vessel halfway submerged.
"We just started yanking people out," Marceline told The Associated Press. At least two people bobbed in the water without life jackets, while others clung to a windsurfer's board.
Marceline could see people trapped inside the rapidly sinking boat through its windows. He threw lead fishing weights to survivors in the water, hoping they could smash the glass, but they were too weak.
"It was like Titanic in real life," he said. "There was stuff everywhere. People were banging on the glass."
Montoya estimated they pulled eight or nine people aboard, including the captain, before first responders arrived.
Initial callers reported what appeared to be smoke coming from the boat, but San Francisco police officers who first reached the vessel said it was steam.
Toczko said there were life jackets onboard the boat and that some people were rescued wearing them.
Sudden immersion in water under 15 deg C can lead to cold water shock, a condition where people lose dexterity in minutes. That can be dangerous or deadly when trying to escape a sinking watercraft.
The owners of the boat are John Boisa and Miriam Boisa of Stockton, Coast Guard records show. They did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
"All of us are grieving during this time," he told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Ralph Boisa said his brother John is a "very capable and experienced boatsman" who served in the US Navy. He frequently took family members out on the boat to the San Francisco Bay, Boisa said.
His older brother who died, Clifford Boisa, lived on a small prune orchard in Sutter County in the Sacramento Valley and was a volunteer sheriff's deputy for more than a decade. Ralph Boisa had planned to visit him for his 80th birthday party next month.
"He was a happy guy, jovial," Boisa said. "We're pretty broken up here."
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