The six fishing buddies left Sonoma County last Thursday for the long drive to Mexico's Baja Coast and what they hoped would be a week-long adventure filled with lots of yellowtail and lasting memories.
But around 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, panicked shouting filled the below-deck cabins of the 115-foot vessel where most of the 27 Americans who had chartered the boat were sleeping.
The Erik was going down. And quickly.
The men had barely enough time to grab life jackets or nothing at all before they jumped overboard into the dark sea and swells as "high as mountains," according to one Sonoma County man who was plucked to safety after he tread water for nearly 24 hours.
He was among the fortunate. Two Sonoma County men - Russ Bautista of Penngrove and Shawn Chaddock of Petaluma - were among seven Americans still unaccounted for Tuesday as Mexican and U.S. authorities continued their search for survivors.
Information relayed by the survivors to their friends and families provided a riveting account Tuesday of what they endured before their rescue. It also raises questions about whether the tragedy could have been avoided and whether the ship was properly outfitted for the howling winds and high seas that contributed to the boat capsizing.
For Joelle Bautista, those considerations were secondary Tuesday to her concern for her husband, a retired Pacific Bell worker who had gone on the Mexican adventure several times before and had convinced the five other Sonoma County men to join him.
In addition to Bautista, the trip included Jim Miller of Penngrove, Warren Tsurumoto and Dennis DeLuca of Sebastopol and Dave Levine of Bodega Bay. The men hailed from different backgrounds but shared a passion for fishing, usually in the waters off Bodega Bay.
"These men knew how to fish. They knew how to ride a boat. They were seamen," said Joan DeLuca, who was relieved to hear her husband's voice after he called her from a hotel in San Felipe, about 100 miles south of the Mexican border, to report that he was all right - if a bit unnerved.
The construction and engineering manager for AT&T told his wife that he had gone on the deck of the boat early Sunday and that he was wearing a life vest because he was worried about the high wind and rough seas.
When the boat began to sink, she said he "put one foot on the top of the railing and dove in. He didn't even think."
The six men had joined with a caravan of other Bay Area fishermen on Thursday for the annual Fourth of July getaway to Mexico.
Joan DeLuca said her husband went on the trip last year and couldn't wait to go back.
"They really loved the atmosphere, the fact they could go out every day in panga (fishing) boats and have locals take them to fishing spots, and then back to the boat and served regional fare," she said.
The Mexican Navy on Tuesday identified Leslie Yee of Ceres in the Central Valley as the sole confirmed death.
Mexican authorities are taking the lead investigating the cause of the mishap, which occurred in foul weather 67 miles south of San Felipe near San Luis Island in the Gulf of California. The ship had launched from San Felipe at about noon on Saturday.
The boat was carrying 43 people, including 16 crew members. The boat company, Baja Sportfishing, once worked out of San Diego, but owner Alexander Velez let the license expire last year, said Roz Cockerham, a San Diego city tax representative. It was unclear whether the company had moved to another city or relocated to Mexico, where its boats departed. The Baja Sportfishing website said company officials could not respond to messages and that all trips have been canceled.
The Mexican Navy was using a helicopter, an airplane, three ships and Marines on land to search for the missing men. The U.S. Coast Guard sent a C-130 airplane from Sacramento early Tuesday to assist in the search effort.
A Coast Guard spokesman on Tuesday described the conditions for survival in the ocean where the boat went down as "good," saying the last reported water temperature was 77 degrees.
"We will continue to search as long as the possibility of survival holds up," said Petty Officer Levi Read with the 11th Coast Guard District based in Alameda.
Dave Levine, a Bodega Bay resident who works heavy highway construction in Marin County, told his wife that Chaddock - with whom he was sharing a cabin - woke him to report that the boat was tilting over. The men quickly grabbed life vests and jumped overboard.
Levine said he was in the water with a group of five people and that they held on to an ice chest to help stay afloat. Others grabbed gas cans and anything else they could find.
At daylight, Levine decided to try and swim to shore, but after 10 hours of fighting the currents he gave up and returned to the group.
Carey Levine said her 53-year-old husband had recently started working out and that he is in the best shape of his life. "I'm so thankful for that," she said.
She said her husband eventually swam to an island that turned out to be deserted. Fortunately, a group of fishermen motored by and rescued him.
Jim Miller, Bautista's neighbor in Penngrove, also had gone on the deck of the boat that night. He witnessed a large wave crash over the boat and fill the fish hold, which he said had been left open, according to Joelle Bautista.
That raises speculation that the boat sank as a result of the added weight in the fish hold, and not because it was toppled over by the waves, which was the initial report provided by authorities.
Tsurumoto told a friend that he had heard after the fact that Mexican authorities had warned the boat's skipper not to motor out that day because of warnings of bad weather.
Tsurumoto said only one arm of his life jacket would inflate, forcing him to work harder as he treaded water for 20 hours and raising questions about the safety equipment stashed aboard the vessel. All of the crew members aboard the vessel survived.
Tsurumoto eventually was rescued by fishermen. "He said he thought he was going to have to spend another night out there," said Kelly Bailiff of Forestville, a fishing friend.
Amy Tsurumoto said she was glad to hear from her son. She's 86 and said she relies on his help to get by.
"He's more upset about his friends being lost," she said. "They were real good buddies."
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