San Martin Man Among Survivors in Boating Tragedy

A fishing trip became a tragedy for a San Martin man and other Bay Area passengers aboard a charter fishing boat after it capsized during a storm near Baja California, Mexico, early Sunday morning, a U.S. Coast Guard petty officer said.

The boat, operated by the fishing excursion company, Baja Sportfishing Inc., sank on Sunday at 2:30 a.m. in Sea of Cortez waters near Isla San Luis in Mexico. More than 40 people were on board, including crew members and a group of fishermen from various Bay Area cities on a fishing trip together.

Seven people are missing, and one man died, Coast Guard Petty Officer Henry Dunphy said.

In an email sent from Baja Sportfishing today, the company said, "We are devastated by this horrible tragedy. Every effort is being made to assist the authorities in the search. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the families." 

The company website said all trips have been canceled, because of the weekend incident.

The U.S. Coast Guard is working with the Mexican navy to look for survivors after the navy asked for assistance Monday morning. This morning the Coast Guard sent a C-130 Hercules airplane from Sacramento to provide a long-range search-and-rescue effort.

The Coast Guard and Mexican navy are hopeful some of the missing people may be alive, with the 80-degree waters preventing hypothermia, one of the biggest risks for capsized swimmers, aside from drowning, Dunphy said.

"The water temperature is pretty warm," he said. "That is a major factor for how long someone can survive in the water."

About 37 of the people thrown overboard made it to shore, and some were able to call family back in the Bay Area.

Passenger Lee Ikegami called his wife, Murphy, at their San Martin home on Sunday night to let her know he was OK and recuperating with other survivors at a San Felipe hotel in Baja California.

He said the boat capsize had been a "great adventure," until he found out Monday morning that his friend, Leslie Yee, had died and that the organizer of the annual fishing trip, Donald Lee, was missing. For many years, Ikegami had organized fishing trips in the area, but this year the group was staying on the boat the entire trip instead of in motels along the Baja coast.

"He was really, really, really, really lucky," Murphy Ikegami said.

Her husband, a retired man, had his passport and wallet in his pocket and was thrown from the boat near a life raft that he clung to with several other men until they reached shore at about 3 a.m.

Murphy Ikegami said there were 20-foot swells, which knocked the crew and passengers into the water before an SOS call could be made. It was not until the first group of survivors made it to shore that search-and-rescue crews were advised there had been an accident, she said.

She added that an "incredible" local family living about a mile from where the survivors had washed up had been a big help in the rescue.

The family took her husband and other men into their home and gave them food and water and called Mexican search-and-rescue crews.

Aside from some scrapes and harsh sunburns, the men who made it ashore are physically OK, but Lee Ikegami is "truly devastated."

"In all the years we've been married, I've never heard him this down," she said.

Jan Askew's husband, Richard Ciabattari, was in the water for more than 12 hours, she said from their Novato home.

She said Ciabattari is in "OK shape with no broken bones," but he had swam about eight miles while in the water in the dark.

"He's a little traumatized, to say the least," she said.

Askew said her husband went on the trip as a replacement person when someone else canceled last minute. He went with his friend, Gary Wong, also from Novato. He left for the trip Thursday night and was scheduled to return by this Thursday.

Askew, who is in the mortgage business, said her husband is an avid fisherman and works part time as an usher at AT&T Park for the San Francisco Giants.

"I'm more overwhelmed by it and how quickly things can happen," Askew said, when asked how she was handling the news. "I'm very sad for the people whose (family members) are missing."

Petty Officer Dunphy said he did not know how much longer the search for the missing people would continue, but Murphy Ikegami said she hopes the search stays on.

The wife of missing Penngrove man, Russell Bautista, is waiting to hear news from Mexico.

"They have conducted a search south of the shipwreck and they have a lot of planes," said Bautista's wife, who did not share her name. "Survivors said the waters are teeming with search vessels."

—By Bay City News