Homer, Alaska - Oped - 'Mayday' reported near Seldovia 10/22/08

Story last updated at 9:26 PM on Wednesday, October 22, 2008

'Mayday' reported near Seldovia

BY MICHAEL ARMSTRONG
STAFF WRITER

In the midst of searches for two missing hunters in Prince William Sound and 11 missing fishermen in the Gulf of Alaska, the U.S. Coast Guard continued a search Wednesday morning following a report of a boat sinking between Port Graham and Point Pogibshi near Seldovia late Monday night.

A caller had made a "mayday" broadcast about 10 p.m. Oct. 20 saying the person was abandoning ship and getting into a life raft.

As of press time Wednesday afternoon, no one was found.

The U.S. Coast Guard diverted an Air Station Kodiak MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from a search for two hunters missing in Prince William Sound. That crew reported seeing the men in Hanning Bay and not in apparent distress. The Homer U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary also launched a search, finishing three legs of a search pattern before returning to the Homer Harbor after running into bad weather. A C-130 crew was launched from Kodiak but could not search the area because of low cloud cover.

An H-65 Dolphin helicopter crew searched Wednesday, said Petty Officer Sara Francis of U.S.C.G. Public Affairs, Anchorage. Francis said no Electronic Position Indicating Radio Beacon signals were received. Several mariners, including crew on the U.S. Coast Guard Buoy Tender Hickory, received the mayday call on Monday. The possible signal location did not concur with the reported position, Francis said. There also were no reports in the Kachemak Bay area of overdue mariners. Francis said the Coast Guard would reevaluate the distress call to determine if the search should continue.

In the Prince William Sound search, Alaska State Troopers and Whittier Coast Guard Auxiliary were to continue the search for the hunters on Wednesday. The Coast Guard focused most of its resources on an EPIRB signal from the F/V Katmai that went off early Wednesday morning at a location about 100 miles west of Adak.

A Jayhawk crew found the EPIRB, a life raft, several life rafts dropped by a C-130 crew and an empty survival suit, but no survivors. The Coast Guard Cutter Acushnet, an Air National Guard C-130 and a Blackhawk helicopter continued the search Wednesday. Search conditions are 30 knot winds from the north, 10-15 foot seas, rain and snow mix with visibility of 3 miles.

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.

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