Aleutian Storm still grounded near Bodega Bay after attempts to refloat it fail

A third attempt to free a grounded, 57-ton fishing vessel from the surf at south Salmon Creek State Beach failed Monday with harsh weather on the horizon and each passing day raising the risk the boat could be stranded.

The Aleutian Storm, a 58-foot, double-hulled steel vessel, remained “softly grounded” toward the south end of the beach, meaning it’s not dug in, and the potential for refloating it still exists, U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Natasha Kenney said. And it should endure the battering waves more readily than less sturdy boats.

But the vessel, grounded Friday night, is subject to tidal forces that, more likely than not, will push it further into the sand, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman said.

It additionally could be swamped if it’s still on the beach for any length of time, particularly as stormy weather arrives midweek, Kenney said. If the vessel takes on water, it could settle the boat more deeply in the sand and make it more resistant to being moved.

“There’s always the possibility that she could take on water and stay where she is,” said Kenney, who is with the Coast Guard’s Incident Management Division.

But two attempts at high tide Sunday morning to tow the boat from the site using a tugboat called Guardian dispatched from San Francisco resulted in two lines snapping under tension on successive tries, Kenney said.

A larger, more powerful tugboat, Liberty, was sent to help on Monday, targeting high tide around 12:30 p.m., when high water would help lift the boat.

But just as Liberty arrived in the area, the first tug made a third attempt to float the Aleutian Storm with a stronger line, and it somehow became detached and sank before the fishing vessel could be floated.

“We lost the tide window, so there will not be any further float attempts today,” Kenney said.

The San Francisco-based fishing vessel, skippered by Capt. Chris Fox, reportedly had been in the crabbing grounds and was headed into Bodega Harbor to refuel late Friday night, under high winds and rough ocean conditions, she said.

What happened next is still under investigation, but “when weather moves through things happen quickly, and they just weren’t able to adjust as quickly to the changing environment,“ Kenney said.

The four-member crew jumped from the vessel and made it safely to shore as the Coast Guard, state park rangers, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, the CHP and local fire districts responded.

The boat has been pitched about in the waves since.

Its unsteady perch and a strong list to starboard have made it too dangerous to board and assess how much diesel fuel remained in the Aleutian Storm’s tanks, but attention was turning Monday afternoon to fuel removal efforts, which would involve pumping fuel to containers on shore for transport later.

The vessel crew had estimated it held about 1,500 gallons of diesel when it grounded, but some of that would have been burned off by the engines during initial removal efforts.

There have been no signs of fuel spill so far, however, and the boat appears to be intact, though no one has been on board to assess it, Kenney said.

She said Fox also has been cooperative and active in securing contract crews to offload fuel and attend to other needs. But other than that, “we are on hold right now, waiting until the vessel is not being subject to the waves” before a full assessment can be made, she said.

If refloating the boat is not an option, Kenney said, it will be up to Fox and state parks “to figure out what salvaging looks like.

Stranded boats are a sensitive subject along the coastline in large part because funding for their removal is scarce and jurisdiction is always in question.

Cea Higgins, a longtime coastal advocate and executive director of Coastwalk California, spent years working on the issue as a member of the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council. She said that despite it being a very strong boat, the Aleutian Storm could still break apart or at least have everything but the hull wash into the waters of the marine sanctuary, littering the shoreline as well.

That very thing happened to the steal and concrete Verna A II in 2016 not far from the recent grounding on Salmon Creek Beach, leaving behind just the 54-foot fishing vessel’s rusted green hull, now mostly buried in the sand. Its captain was uninsured.

More recently, in 2021, a scuttled fishing vessel being towed from Puget Sound to Ensenada, Mexico, to be scrapped broke loose from the tugboat and ran aground on the Marin Coast north of Dillon Beach.

The 90-foot American Challenger was the subject of significant attention for a time and even millions of dollars in funding devoted to its stabilization and recovery attempts, all of which failed. Three years later it remains on the rocks off the Marin Coast. Both the tug and the fishing vessel were uninsured.

Higgins said Fox has coverage. He’s also a respected member of the fishing community, with its support.

“Let’s hope for the best,” she said.

Staff photograher Christopher Chung contributed to this story. You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan (she/her) at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @MaryCallahanB.