SAN FRANCISCO (AP) 鈥� Rescuers were still searching for three people missing after a boat involved in a memorial service sank in the cold, fast-moving waters of , authorities said Wednesday.
One person was pulled from the water but later died, and 16 others were rescued Tuesday afternoon after the boat took on water and capsized, San Francisco Fire Chief Dean Crispen said. He said the passengers on board were mostly family members, and that a dog also died.
Witnesses reported 鈥渞ough seas,鈥� the fire chief said, with rescuers saying swells reached up to 5 feet (1.5 meters). However, marine weather conditions were not severe enough to warrant a small craft advisory.
The vessel was a 50-foot (15-meter) pleasure craft with a cabin and upper deck named Volare, said Lt. Mariano Elias, a fire department spokesperson. It was registered out of Stockton, California, which sits at the eastern edge of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
Two rescuers who jumped into action while fishing for halibut, Justin Marceline and Michael Montoya, said the boat that sank was more than capable of being out in the bay. They said they saw smoke, and arrived to find the vessel halfway submerged.
鈥淲e just started yanking people out,鈥� Marceline told The Associated Press on Wednesday. At least two people bobbed in the water without life jackets, while others clung to a windsurfer鈥檚 board.
Marceline could see people trapped inside the rapidly sinking boat through its windows. He threw lead fishing weights to survivors in the water, hoping they could smash the glass, but they were too weak.
鈥淚t was like Titanic in real life,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here was stuff everywhere. People were banging on the glass.鈥�
Montoya estimated they pulled eight or nine people aboard before first responders arrived, including the boat鈥檚 captain.
Marceline said the wind and outgoing tide created rough waves that made it difficult for people to stay afloat. Initial callers reported what appeared to be smoke coming from the boat, but San Francisco police officers who first reached the vessel said it was steam.
Sudden immersion in water under 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius) can lead to cold water shock, a condition where people lose dexterity in minutes. That can be dangerous or deadly when trying to escape a sinking watercraft.
The person who died was identified as Clifford Joseph Boisa, 79, from rural Sutter County in the Sacramento Valley, the San Francisco medical examiner said.
The U.S. Coast Guard was leading the search effort and hadn鈥檛 yet determined how long crews will keep looking before switching to a recovery operation, Petty Officer Kenneth Wiese said Wednesday.
鈥淲e want to consider every single option,鈥� Wiese said.
A Coast Guard cutter named the Barracuda, other vessels and a fixed-wing aircraft were involved, he said. Teams were using thermal imaging, tide prediction and modeling to guide their efforts, the fire department said. By Tuesday evening, authorities had been searching the open ocean west of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The boat departed a San Francisco marina, passed under the Golden Gate Bridge twice and visited Angel Island State Park, the largest natural island in the bay, before the apparent return trip near Alcatraz, according to the ship-tracking website VesselFinder.
鈥淭he wind was coming underneath the Golden Gate and blowing toward Alcatraz,鈥� Lt. Joseph England of the Richmond Police Department, who responded to the scene, said Wednesday. 鈥淚f you have a smaller vessel and you don鈥檛 know what you鈥檙e doing and you鈥檙e hitting those swells sideways, it can lead to disaster.鈥�
The maximum-security federal prison at , which closed more than 60 years ago, was infamously inescapable due to the chilly waters and strong currents that surround “The Rock.鈥� Designed to hold the nation鈥檚 intractable criminals, including Al Capone and George 鈥淢achine Gun鈥� Kelly, it is now a popular tourist attraction. The island is about a mile (1.6 kilometers) off San Francisco.
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Associated Press writers Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Ed White in Detroit; Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles; and photographer Noah Berger in San Francisco contributed to this story.
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