I hope they are able to get a better idea what happened. It takes a while for the USCG to put together the report and its hard waiting.
While I certainly understand lives were lost I think it is too soon to lay blame. From everything I've seen there were no obvious signs of concern before the incident. The weather was up where they found the boat but that was the next day and there is serious water movement in that area so where they found the boat could be quite a ways from where they got into trouble. The captain of other boat out that day with the rest of the group said he never saw any conditions that would jeopardize the trip. Captain of the Awakin had a clean record and by all accounts was a good man. KF has a great rep. Even a local attorney who litigates marine injury cases said everyone involved had very good safety records. I am a little surprised that they didn't have AIS even though its not required.
At this point we don't know it wasn't a mechanical failure that triggered the event. For the sake of all involved I hope there are some answers to what happened.
You are somewhat right with your observation - "we don't know enough" - but we have some details and Seth Bone (owner of KF) is shitting his pants. The Tyau & Agcaoili family is gonna hold KF liable for damages, and it ain't gonne be pretty.
What do we know -
1) Water was rough Friday and Sister's got sea sick.
2) Water on Sunday was 6ft to 11ft near Shoals point (Captian decided to take sea sick sisters fishing on the outside in a 30 ft boat) google Shoals Point and you'll understand.
3) Was there a float plan? Does't seem like KF went out to look for Awakin when they lost radio contact that afternoon and waited until the boat was "over due" Sunday night to call authorities.
4) Who knows if life jackets were being worn, either way no PLB was on a life jacket that alerted of disaster.
5) Doesn't seem like there was AIS on the boat.
6) The submerged boat was found with no apparent damage.
7) The two chartered boats named Awakin & Pockets split up to fish different areas.
8) Weather was so windy and rough, the Coast Guard could not retrieve the sunken boat until Wednesday.
This isn't panga fishing with Pedro in Mexico - Exposure is a real, and treading water in 45 degrees is no joke. Every saftey precation available should have been taken to ensure tragic incidents are unlikely to happen. While the King Fisher charter operation and Captian had an excellent saftey record, it only takes a lapse in judgement for serious accident to happen. For the record, the Captian's of both Conception and Prowler both had excellent safety records before their maritime accidents!
www.wfmj.com
