Fort Bragg fishing vessel suddenly lay on its side and went down, losing one on board

There had been no obvious sign of trouble, no advance warning, in the moments before the Miss Hailee suddenly began to tilt onto its side during a routine fishing trip off the North Coast last weekend, according to Brian Kelley, whose family owns the commercial vessel.

Then, for reasons still unknown, the boat capsized and sank so quickly the four people on board barely had time to escape with two survival suits and two life vests to divide between them, Kelley said.

The resulting loss of a young deckhand, Arnulfo “Amigo” Santiago, has left his tight-knit group of co-workers grief-stricken, as people around Fort Bragg’s Noyo Harbor mourn a hard worker and friend.

The three others, including a federal fisheries observer and another deckhand, survived the Nov. 9 accident some 20 miles west of Jenner, though longtime boat Capt. Leo Vargas is still recovering from severe hypothermia, his father said.

Vargas, 60, had no immersion suit to wear and waited unprotected for about 90 minutes in the frigid ocean for rescuers to arrive. The other two, whose names have not been made public, fared better, as they had thick neoprene dry suits on.

Vargas hasn’t wanted to talk about the incident since returning home from Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital earlier this week, said his father, Leo Vargas Sr.

After most of a lifetime on the water, he’s struggling with losing a member of his crew under circumstances no one can yet explain.

“He was worried about the crew,” Vargas Sr. said. “He tried to keep them all together. He said, I think, they kind of drifted apart, or something like that. Right now he’s not willing to talk about it at all.”

The accident has proved a sobering tragedy for members of the North Coast fishing fleet and a reminder of the vagaries that rule existence on the ocean, often beyond the control of mere mortals, several boat captains said.

“Freak accidents happen every day” in the fishing industry, said Scott Hockett, a commercial fisherman and owner of Noyo Fish Company restaurant.

The Miss Hailee, a 54-foot wooden vessel, was built in Fort Bragg in 1970 and long served the Kelley family. It is owned by Richard Kelley and other family partners, said his son, Brian Kelley.

Kelley was reluctant to discuss the accident and said he is deeply distressed about all of it, but particularly how deeply he knows this is troubling the skipper and how painful it is to lose his friend.

“I don’t care about the boat,” he said. “I care about losing my friend.”

He disputed reports from the U.S. Coast Guard that a large wave had capsized the boat, and said something else must have gone awry - possibly “something we didn’t see.”

He also said that ocean conditions that had been described as “rough” were moderate for someone with extensive fishing experience like those on board the Miss Hailee on Saturday.

But he said the shock and mystery of what happened has left “everyone shaking their head.”

“I think there was something that was just not seen there,” he said.

The crew had reportedly fished off Fort Bragg first before heading south to top off their load when trouble struck around 3:30 p.m. Saturday.

When the vessel suddenly lay on its side, Vargas tried to right it while the observer and perhaps others tried to grab flotations and throw them in the water as the boat quickly sank, sending them all into the drink. An electronic satellite distress signal likely activated by contact with the water eventually made its way to the Coast Guard’s Sector San Francisco at 3:42 p.m., officials said.

The Coast Guard station in Bodega Bay was alerted as the San Francisco station tried to raise those on the boat via emergency channel, without success. At that point, a Dolphin helicopter with an estimated travel time of 30 minutes took off from San Francisco, and a 47-foot motor lifeboat was launched from Doran Beach with an ETA of 90 minutes, said Boatswain Mate Third Class John Schaefer, who was aboard the boat.

The lifeboat was briefly diverted by an unrelated mayday call in the area of Tomales Point but later returned to its original mission, Schaefer said, traveling through 6- to-8-foot swells, and some as high as 10 feet, and winds gusting to 30 mph to get to the site where the Miss Hailee went down.

“It was a nasty ride,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Dolphin arrived to find Vargas and the two others clinging to one another in the water. Schaefer, whose vessel arrived later, said he saw almost no debris from the boat. The Dolphin crew lifted Vargas to safety first - a video of the rescue showing him so frozen he appeared almost unable to move. His father said he was cold for days and had difficulty regulating his heartbeat.

The others were in better condition because of their survival suits, Coast Guard personnel said.

The lifeboat, a fixed-wing aircraft and a good Samaritan crew aboard a tugboat called Cochise searched the area for Santiago by moonlight without success. The Coast Guard search continued until the next afternoon, when it was suspended.

Santiago, originally from Oaxaca, Mexico, according to a friend, had come to Fort Bragg from the Sacramento area and worked for the Kelleys for 12 or 13 years, both at Brian Kelley’s fishing shop and on the family’s commercial vessels. Hockett, who also employed Santiago at one point, said he thought he was about 31 years old.

Bill Sanborn, harbor master at Noyo Harbor, said he was “a very well-known young man.”

“He was a bang-up guy, just a go-get ’em young man, and there are very few of them these days,” Sanborn said.

Vargas also had worked for the Kelleys for many years and “loved that boat more than us, probably,” Brian Kelley said of Miss Hailee.

He said it was well maintained and fully equipped for safety - not least because it was attached to a particular kind of limited federal permit that required the periodic presence of a regulatory monitor who was on board the day of the accident.

The woman, whose full name has not been made available, worked for about a year for Seattle-based Saltwater Inc. and was based out of Fort Bragg, program manager Stacey Hansen said. She had gone out multiple times on Miss Hailee, representing the National Marine Fisheries Service and documenting the vessel’s trip and catch to ensure compliance with the federally regulated groundfish fishery.

“They’re not part of the crew, however they go through a very robust training program,” Hansen said, noting that part of the training involves learning to don a dry suit within 60 seconds. “It was her training that is provided by National Marine Fisheries, and safety drills on the boat, that led to the outcome that she had.”

Petty Officer Taylor Bacon said the Coast Guard is investigating the accident, though it could be some time before any conclusions are released.

“It typically takes time,” he said.

Staff Writer Randi Rossman contributed to this report. You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.