We enjoyed a wonderful day cruise to Port Orchard.

One of the more unusual things I've seen while boating occured just as
we were leaving the marina.

A very old old wooden fishboat had been secured to the barge buoy
outside the breakwater. When I arrived at our boat, just a few minutes
before the Mrs who came by separate car, I noted the fishboat on the
buoy and wondered why it was there. I concluded that perhaps the boat
had some engine problems and that somebody had towed it to the barge
buoy, tied it off, and the crew had gone ashore and planned to deal
with the problem the following day.

It took about 20 minutes for my wife to arrive, to get the boat
started, untie, and motor around the end of the breakwater to where the
barge buoy was visible again. Oh, oh!

The fishboat was down at the stern and listing to starboard!

Several boats were racing to the scene, and a sailboat radioed the
Mayday just as I was about to pick up the mic and do the same.

I didn't appear that anybody was aboard, but there was a small skiff
tethered to the boat and that seemed potentially ominous. If there was
somebody aboard, they must have been asleep or trapped in the engine
room as there was nobody on deck or any other sign of life. One party
in a small fishboat had pulled up very close alongside and was
inspecting as carefully as he could. There were 6-7 boats immediately
alongside already and in touch with the authorities so I didn't see any
reason to clutter up the area with our additional boat. Had there been
only a boat or two on the scene we obviously would have stayed. When
rescue arrives, they don't want a whole herd of gawkers to have to work
through.

The whole works went down to where only a foot or two of the bow
protruded above the water in less than 5 minutes. There was no
reasonable way for anybody to get aboard to check for anybody in a
cabin or engine room, as that portion of the boat was many feet under
water before any of the boats on the scene reached the vessel. The
Coast Guard said they were "dispatching a unit right away".......and I
guess they did. We saw the Chief Seattle Fire Boat headed over at a
blistering 10-12 knots when we passed West Point. :-(

Irritating footnote: The guy on the sailboat told the CG that he was
"unable to confirm" whether there were people on the boat or not, and
he did mention the skiff tied alongside. The response from the CG
dispatcher? "Do you see any oil or diesel on the water? If so, how
large is the slick? Which direction would any oil or diesel be
drifting?" GRRRRRR.

If there is even a remote chance that there might have been people on
board that boat, (and there was a remote chance) the CG should have
sent a helicopter and a rescue swimmer or diver. I'm not very impressed
with the fire boat responding at "all ahead, standard".

I'll have to watch the news to see if there were any fatalities. I hope
not, and suspect not. I think there was only a very slim chance that
anybody was aboard at all- and they would have to be trapped or passed
out drunk not to scramble up to the foredeck as it was going down.
There were plenty of vessels on hand to pick up any evacuees.