San Francisco fishermen recount harrowing rescue after boat capsizes near Alcatraz

SAN FRANCISCO – While one person died after a cabin cruiser sank in the San Francisco Bay on Tuesday afternoon, a harrowing rescue near Alcatraz Island saved 16 lives.

The U.S. Coast Guard and the San Francisco Fire Department continue to search for three missing people who went overboard after the vessel went down around 3:30 p.m.

Clifford Joseph Boisa, 79, of Sutter County, was pronounced dead following the incident. However, 16 others were brought to safety, many of them rescued by civilian boaters who rushed to help. Among the Good Samaritans were fishermen Mike Montoya and Justin Marceline, who were aboard the Khea, a 22-foot Boston Whaler.

At a Wednesday afternoon press conference, Coast Guard Incident Commander Jarod Toczko praised the fishermen and a nearby kiteboarder for their heroic actions.

A rush to help

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Montoya and Marceline were on the water when they noticed signs of trouble nearby.

“I turned around and I saw a plume of either smoke or steam,” Montoya said. “I just knew that somebody was in distress.”

Montoya told his partner they needed to move their boat closer to investigate. When they arrived, they found people struggling to stay afloat in the Bay’s frigid waters.

The rescuers began throwing life jackets and flotation devices to those in the water, pulling victims aboard as quickly as possible. Many of the victims were exhausted and unable to pull themselves out of the water.

Witnesses recount people ‘trapped’ inside

What they’re saying:

As they pulled survivors aboard, Montoya said he saw people trapped inside the cabin of the sinking vessel, banging on the windows.

“We were throwing fishing weights at the window, trying to get it to break, and we handed a guy a fishing weight that was in the water, and he didn’t have a life jacket on,” Montoya said.

In total, Montoya and Marceline pulled nine people onto their boat and brought them to safety.

Marceline was prepared to jump into the Bay to help more victims, but Montoya stopped him, warning of debris and other dangers beneath the surface.

“My first thought was to kick my shoes off and get down to my underwear and jump in and start to get the elderly people off the boat, because it was elderly people helping elderly people and it wasn’t going fast enough,” Marceline said.

Memorial service turns tragically fatal

Survivors told the fishermen they had gathered on the water for a memorial service. Authorities later confirmed that the victims and survivors were relatives and close friends holding a memorial when the boat went down.

Toczko said the 50-foot cabin cruiser was capable of carrying the number of people on board, but noted that investigators must consider several factors regarding the boat’s stability.

The investigation into what caused the vessel to sink is ongoing.