Friday, December 8, 2023

20 Year Anniversary Of A Monster Storm and the Fishing Vessel Martle Sinking In Skunk Bay



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This year is the 20th anniversary of a horrific storm that clobbered Northern Puget Sound.  It did serious damage to the Mukilteo Ivars and sank a 60 foot purse seiner off Foulweather Bluff.  The Martle is still at the bottom of Skunk Bay as far as we know. 

This storm came up very fast.  I was on the Edmonds/Kingston ferry coming home from work.  The wind just exploded out of the north and gave us all a good ride on our way to Kingston.  On my drive home to Hansville, the road was littered with debris.  I had a few “religious” moments as the trees were dropping all around me.  The power was out when I got home.  I went in the house to check on things and saw two large fishing boats out front crashing their way through the nasty seas.  I noticed one of the boats seemed to be riding reasonably well and the other was getting slammed.  I watched it bow under to the pilot house and then three quarters of the hull went airborne when it came out of the trough.  I watched it for a minute or two and then went to the back of the house and got the generator going.  By the time I got back inside I checked on the two vessels.  I could only see one.  I grabbed my binoculars and found the second boat….  It was turtled (capsized upside down) off Foulweather Bluff.  I called the Coast Guard and was on the phone with them for about 30 minutes giving them updates. 

There was no local media news coverage at all about this event.  The main coverage was about the damage to Ivars.  I was very disappointed that this wasn’t covered.  I finally found this article that came out 3 years later.  The rescue of the crew of the Martle was a very heroic act of seamanship.  They risked their lives to save that crew.

Here is a link to the story from the Seattle Weekly that gives the details.  It’s a very good read….

https://www.seattleweekly.com/news/wreck-of-the-martle/

 

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