F/V Destination, Alaska Bering Sea Crabber, 6 missing crew on board. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the crew and their land and sea families. U.S. Coast Guard has suspended the search. I took these photo’s of F/V Destination late May and early June, the boat went missing on Saturday February 11, 2017; unbeknownst to me of the panic that was going on in the Bering Sea of Alaska off St. George Island; I was at a church event when my phone and email began to blow up, inquiries from local an soon after nation new publications asking permission to use my photo’s I took of F/V Destination, of course my answer was yes, next I asked the 1st news editor I spoke to what’s going on with the boat, at that point she explained the boat was missing…. Faith and hope tells our gut that they are okay and the USCG will find them; followed by immediate specific prayer for these 6 fishermen in Alaska’s February icy seas.
F/V Destination Crew, photo above was on a June afternoon in the ship canal. Fast forward to Feb. 2017 F/V Destination, 1st class fishermen take by the Bering Sea, Captain Jeff Hathaway, Engineer Larry O’Grady, Deckhands Charles Glenn Jones, Raymond Vincler, Darrik Seibold, and Kai Hamik. The shock waves of this missing boat and crew has spread nationwide. This loss has shaken our very tight insulated maritime and commercial fishing community in the Pacific Northwest to Alaska. We will deeply miss seeing the Destination run east and westbound in the Seattle ship canal between Trident Old Yard, getting Ballard Bridge lifts and touch and goes at Fishermen’s Terminal, with lifts and drops by the Ballard Locks.
Our Pacific Northwest and Alaskan fishing community and industry is shaken, this is a wake up call to what commercial fishing life is about. Family, friends and love ones are rattled and devastated by the loss of the F/V Destination 6 great fishermen taken by the Bering Sea. Without an exact data or diagnosis of what happened to make the boat vanish without getting out a ‘mayday’ in extreme distress is disheartening; all who know this great captain and crew and who have dipped their toes in the unforgiving temper of Alaska’s Bering Sea know, what ever happened to the F/V Destination happened extremely fast without notice or time, this crew was about safety first. No matter how ready you are at sea mother nature’s force and command is all over powering.
US Coast Guard recovered the vessel’s electronic locating device Saturday Feb. 11th in the morning debris field containing buoys, a life ring and an oil sheen. F/V Destination, had the full force of US Coast Guard crews helping in the search including two HC-130 Hercules airplane crews, two MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crews, an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew and the Coast Guard Cutter Morgenthau. Local people sprung into action on the small island of St. George, searching and looking along the shore for any signs the Destination or her 6 souls on board.
God bless the families and loved ones of the Destination captain and crew. Their smiles, spirit and love of fishing lives on in all of us. Commercial Fishing Boat Photography by: Salty Dog Maritime Marketing, www.saltydogmaritimemarketing.com Salty Dog Boating News, Salty Sea Gal, Marine Traffic Underway Source Inquiry: [email protected] – God Bless Our Fishermen, Fisherwomen & Their Families!
NOAA Found the F/V Destination in July 2017, off St. George Island 250 feet underwater, all 6 men on board are still reported lost into the Bering Sea. ‘It’s NOT fair!’