October 21, 2011 Friday

Tasu - Fishing Boat aground at Seadrift

"That boat is still there. They haven't pulled it off the beach," I said to myself as I drove down the Panoramic Highway above Stinson Beach. "I'm in luck. I still can get some photos of it."

When driving to Bolinas last Friday (October 14) I could see far in the distance a boat stuck of the sand at Seadrift. At first I thought it was a catamaran. It appeared to have two white hulls with a mask in between them. From the water at the Channel, we could see that something was stuck in shallow water at Seadrift about ten to fifteen houses in, but we could not make out the details. A coast guard helicopter hovered overhead. From our angle the object looked like a floating crane - brown wood barge with a crane boom sticking straight up. At the end of our session a surfer knee paddled over from Seadrift with a grin on his face.

"It's a fishing boat that has run aground, and guess what? The Coast Guard refuses to pull him off the beach because their price exceeds the limit on his credit card. Can you believe that?"

Come Monday, the boat was still there, same on Wednesday. By now I figured out what I was seeing - it was a commercial fishing boat, listing at a near forty-five degree angle with its radio antennae and fishing watchtower pointing towards Bolinas.

Thursday, the Marin IJ had a photo and a brief story about the boat: Owner and captain Greg Ambiel of the 48 foot fishing vessel, Tasu, ran aground in the shallow waters off Seadrift and could not navigate the boat back out to sea. After hours trying to go back and forth, he gave up and waded to shore. Local residents came to his aid and helped him to call the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard refused to come because no one's life was endangered. Coast Guard Lt. Liezi Nicholes stated that their smaller stations, such as the one as Horseshoe Cove, the closest station, do not send help unless human life is at risk. They forwarded his distress call to a salvage company that required a $10,000 deposit for a private tow. Captain Ambiel had a $2000 limit on his credit card and no boat insurance. The next day he had to pay $8,300 to remove the fuel to prevent pollution of the beach and the waters.

The local residents were not pleased that the Coast Guard refused to help Greg pull his boat off their beach. "It's very frustrating that a man lost his livelihood because some government agency that gets paid by the taxpayers wouldn't come out," said Stinson Beach Fire Chief Kenny Stevens.

So this morning - a week later - the boat was still there, the surf at the Channel was barely breaking, even though six of the Bolinas regulars were out there, and thus I had my chance to take some close-up shots of this boat. I figured that my exercise this morning would be to hike down the beach from the Stinson Beach Park to the boat, take some pictures and hike back. It was a long hike - it took me forty minutes to get there - the boat ran aground near the entrance to the lagoon. All in all I spent a couple of hours hiking to the boat, taking several photos and hiking back - a pleasant walk on the beach on a high overcast morning.

Click on the link below to view my photos of the fishing boat Tasu.

Tasu Aground