Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Charter boat capsized out of Sitka

Had a humpback come up under us and lift the boat about a foot out of the water. We were drifting the Chevalle Narrows out of Seward. It came up slowly perpendicular to the boat and right about the balance point of the boat. It had been running up and down along where everyone was drifting. A couple hundred yards away from where it came up under us it breached.

Also an experience I don't want to repeat and I prefer to keep my distance from whales

aluminum boats arent as tough of some of yall might think.

Start pounding the sht out of an aluminum boat in rough water, the welds can crack near the transom, with all that twin outboard weight hanging off the back.

When that water comes rushing in, they fill up quick. No time for nothing.

My guess is cracked welds, trying to make up lost time in rough water.

Except it remained afloat and was towed in, as I understand it.

Most have flotation chambers built in, but it was still capsized. One side may have began sinking, then rough water must've overturned the boat violently enough that the folks couldn't stay with the boat.

I get where you are going, but a gambler would not likely narrow the options so quickly. Human error seems much more likely...

My encounter was very similar to yours except I had not seen whales along that stretch close to the beach but luckily my buddy and I saw it and responded immediately….it was perfect, couldn’t have been faster. Also thankfully it caught us amidship as well and I think we were between 24-36” out of the water when it gently re-floated the boat. It was quiet (motor shutdown before moments before contact) and very gentle. My buddy and I had the same instinct worrying about the fluke so we ducked below the gunnels but we were all in sync that day and now she has a cool story to tell her calf someday since none of us got hurt. 😀

I’ve been very very close to whales many times when the humpbacks teach their calves how to scrape against the rocks and shell beaches, like right alongside our boat looking at us and breathing their delicious breath but I never expected to get a quick ride. 😀

Whales are cool critters.

Very sad in any event

Took this picture of these two humpbacks while fishing myself a few years ago, about 50 yards from our boat, you gotta respect their size and power!

Humpback vs. aluminum boat, the boat loses.

Bye, Bye bait ball.

Cool pic!!!

That is seriously cool!

Thanks, gentlemen

I have to admit I got very lucky.

While we were fishing for Chinook and Coho over a Herring bait ball I noticed some Killer Whales come charging in right by our Kingfisher boat to feed on the Chinook. The salmon were attacking the bait ball, and while that was happening I noticed these two Humpbacks coming in as well, they were I suspect following the Killer Whales.

I noticed a circle of bubbles appear on the surface. Lucky for me I was watching a Nature show on Humpbacks a few weeks before on TV, and in the show, they explained that Humpbacks blow a circle of air bubbles around the Herring in order to group them tighter then they come up from below with their mouths open and swallow the Herring that are in a tighter ball. In the picture, you can see a few herring escaping.

When I saw the circle of bubbles I grabbed my camera and held it in the middle of the circle of bubbles, when they breached I snapped the picture. The timing was perfect and my Captain told me that it was the best picture of whales that he has ever seen and he has been fishing and guiding for 35 years.

Gotta love fishing in the Pacific and one thing is for sure, everything in the water is eating another type of prey. Eat or be eaten, unless you are a whale and even the humpback calves get eaten by Killer Whales.

I was pretty happy to have taken the picture since I am in no way a professional photographer. This is the picture taken of me when we got back to shore that day, I caught all the fish in the picture myself, fun times.

Great picture!

Couldn't wipe that excremental grin of KB's face with a Brillo pad

😂

I can’t blame him though. 👍🏼

Not even with an electric power sander lol

Just in the process of booking my trip for June, Prince Rupert here I come!

No whale is a benign creature if they tangle in any lines. We had nothing larger than a mature beluga get wrapped in the lines of a subsistence salmon set net years ago. It balled everything up and dragged the whole mess several hundred yards from where it had been set. It was choppy when I went to check it and had a bit of a time locating it. I pretty much knew what to expect, so when I found it, I immediately tied it to the rail on my 19 foot skiff. I was a bit surprised when that big white ghost appeared out of the murky green water and expelled the lightest puff of breath. Darned thing was alive, if barely, or so it seemed. Since I was less than 1/2 mile from shore, I figured I'd just motor in to the beach and we could dispatch it and take care of it. However, once the motor was fired up and the prop turned, that whale decided it was having none of that and proceeded to dragged the whole business toward an old barge anchored offshore in spite of 90 HP of ineffectiveness trying to counter his "tired" efforts. There was little else to do but shut the engine down, get on the radio, and request firepower. Even a "nearly dead" little whale is nothing to trifle with.

That does NOT sound like fun. The power of nature is amazing!

Alaska State Troopers have identified the five people on a fishing charter boat that capsized in rough weather in the sea off Sitka as four visitors from Hawaii and California, and a local boat operator.

One person’s body was recovered Sunday night. Troopers on Wednesday identified the person as Maury Agcaoili, 57, of Waipahu, Hawaii. Agcaoili’s body was found in the water near the boat.

The U.S. Coast Guard suspended a search for the four other people missing from the boat on Monday night after covering about 825 square miles over 20 hours.

Still missing are:

• Danielle Agcaoili, 53, also of Waipahu, Hawaii.

• Robert Solis, 61, and Brandi Tyau, 56, both of Canoga Park, Calif.

• Boat operator Morgan Robidou, 32, of Sitka.


On Wednesday, efforts to recover the partially submerged boat were “ongoing,” troopers said in a statement. “Conditions on scene have been rough seas and strong wind.”

So much for the report that the boat was in tow to Sitka.

I thought the same thing