Body recovered off Mendocino coast

Search teams recovered the body of a Kayaker from the ocean south of Mendocino Wednesday morning, a day after he was reported missing.

Donnie Kelly Foster, 56, of Mountain View had set out in his 7-foot blue, whitewater kayak near Mendocino Bay and the Big River Area at about 3 p.m. Tuesday, Mendocino County Sheriff's officials said.

Foster and his wife had come to the coast from the south Bay Area for the Thanksgiving holiday, officials said. Foster had taken his kayak into the ocean on Monday and Tuesday mornings and apparently returned to the ocean again Tuesday afternoon, said Mendocino Volunteer Fire Chief Danny Hervilla, whose water rescue team retrieved the body.

He was the second person to die Tuesday in rough seas off the Sonoma and Mendocino coasts. A 71-year-old Sacramento man who was crab fishing with friends north of Bodega Bay drowned after his vessel began taken on water and capsized.

In Mendocino County, Foster's wife told law enforcement officials that her husband was an adventurous person who enjoyed extreme outdoor activities, said Sheriff's Capt. Kurt Smallcomb.

Hervilla said he received a call about the missing kayaker at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. Emergency officials, including the Coast Guard, conducted ground and ocean searches but could not locate Foster. The search resumed at daybreak Wednesday, Hervilla said.

At about 9 a.m., a Coast Guard helicopter spotted a body floating in the ocean in Brewery Gulch, located just south of Big River beach. The victim was about 300 yards from the beach and 35 yards from the base of a cliff, Hervilla said. A blue kayak was located about 75 yards from the body, Hervilla said.

The water rescue team took Jet Skiis as close as possible to the body, then swam through kelp to make the recovery, he said. They then transferred the body to a Coast Guard boat, Hervilla said.

The victim was not wearing a life jacket, helmet or wetsuit, officials said. He was wearing a thin dry-suit-like jacket but his pants appeared to be fleece, officials said. His clothing would not have provided sufficient protection from the frigid ocean, Hervilla said.

He also was using a kayak ill-suited for the ocean, Hervilla said. Unlike ocean kayaks, river kayaks can fill with water if the skirt that seals the boater's lower body into the kayak comes loose, he said. They also overturn more easily than ocean kayaks.

Coast Guard officials said the kayak's skirt was attached to Foster's body when his body was recovered.

Strong winds and choppy water conditions also were working against the victim, Hervilla said.

It would have been difficult for Foster to kayak back up into Big River because the tide was strong and oceangoing.

"The tide and river current were just ripping out," Hervilla said.

The Coast Guard reported swells of up to 12 feet every nine seconds and winds of up to 30 mph along the Mendocino Coast Tuesday afternoon.

Farther south and earlier in the day Tuesday, Glenn Shoji Iwamoto, died and four others had to be rescued from the frigid ocean when their 21-foot boat overturned near Jenner.

The seas were rough and there were near gale force winds when the Cabo yacht got into trouble after a crab-pot rope got caught in the propeller. The boat took on water and then overturned, officials said.