Boat sinks off Goat Island

These dispatches came into the Weekly News last week

July 20, 2022 8:35 AM

I came up to La Conner to work on my mother’s beach house July 19 and noticed there is a 40 to 50 foot yacht on its side for the last day in the Swinomish Channel at the west end of Goat Island.

I got out the spotting scope and could see that there is a jetty that it is stuck on and it is stuck on the shallow side of the jetty.

There were three boats and a few guys working on what appeared to be uprighting it.

From the look of it at low tide I didn’t think they had a chance.

I am curious about the fuel situation.

I didn’t see anything happening to contain the fuel although it might have been dealt with before I started observing the situation.

When the tide came back in I took a kayak and paddled over.

The boat with the line attached to the grounded boat had the name Tow US on it.

There were no people on the grounded boat.

I am not sure when it became grounded or under what circumstances.

I do have some good pictures of the scene.

I haven’t talked to the neighbors yet to find out what they might know.

Jul 21, 2022 at 9:36 AM

I have heard from a neighbor that the incident occurred on Saturday. It is actually on the non-channel side of the jetty. They had a crew with 6 to 8 people and a barge with a crane there all day yesterday. There were multiple support boats but as it got close to dark the barge left and the boat hadn’t moved.

Jul 21, 2022 at 10:41 AM

I have a little more information that I learned from a US Coast Guard officer who is currently at my neighbor’s house as a launch point for a surveillance drone to go check out the yacht. There is still fuel on it and the Coast Guard has been contracted to remove it. They are beginning that process. The officer told me that the captain of the vessel somehow got off course and was on the outside of the jetty side of the channel. When the tide went out he got stuck and then the wind and waves pushed and flipped it on its side.

July 21, 11:14 a.m.

The Coast Guard said that the empty weight of the vessel is 62,000 pounds and it is insured. They also said that salvage efforts have stopped and insurance has declared it totaled. So it will be broken apart and removed in pieces. They were not sure of the age of the vessel but said that it appeared to be in very nice condition. It does have navigation equipment installed on it.

Emails from Martin Duffy