‘Total Chaos’: Bay Area Sailors Recall Rescue of Boat Passengers Near Alcatraz
Captain Aaron Anfinson was driving his fishing boat, Bass Tub, up the San Francisco waterfront toward the Golden Gate Bridge on Tuesday afternoon when a halibut fisherman flagged him down, pointing to what looked like a plume of dark smoke in the center of the bay.
“I thought, ‘Oh, there’s a fire on that boat,” Anfinson said.
Anfinson was in the middle of a chartered 32-passenger cruise, but the trip quickly turned into a rescue mission. He radioed the U.S. Coast Guard to let them know what was happening.
“I had my crew member grab the fire hose and put all the passengers inside, and we raced out there,” Anfinson said.
He was among the first to arrive at the site of a disaster in the San Francisco Bay that claimed one life and left three missing. He saw the Volare, a 49-foot cabin cruiser based out of Stockton, that was sinking rapidly, sending its 20 passengers into the choppy, frigid waters of the San Francisco Bay.
“There were a bunch of people hanging onto the boat as it was sinking,” Anfinson said.
Other privately owned boats, a kiteboarder, and a Red and White Fleet ferry also joined in on the efforts, Anfinson said. Emergency first responders had yet to arrive.
Four or five more people were hanging onto the kiteboarders’ board, Anfinson said. Boats from the San Francisco Police Department’s Marine Unit and U.S. Coast Guard arrived soon after and started rescuing people, he said.
Anfinson said he noticed that some passengers weren’t wearing life jackets, and there was no liferaft in sight — crucial safety gear that Coast Guard-certified vessels like his are required to carry.
“ I pulled the boat up to them, and my crew member threw them lifejackets. After yelling several times, they finally put them on. I think they were probably in shock,” Anfinson said.
Anfinson noticed a woman he guessed was in her 40s hanging onto the kiteboard and bleeding from the head.
“My crewmember threw a throw ring at her, told her to hold on, and we pulled her onto the boat,” Anfinson said. “Meanwhile, the halibut fisherman was busy grabbing the rest of them and putting them on his boat,” Anfinson said.
Anfinson transported the woman to Gas House Cove in the Marina District, where emergency first responders were waiting.
“ She was very upset,” Anfinson said. “It was a very scary situation.”
The city’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner identified the man who died as Clifford Joseph Boisa, 79. A family member confirmed to KQED that the boat was captained by John Boisa, 62, who is the deceased’s younger brother. The family member said John was an experienced sailor and formerly in the Navy.
Search and rescue teams worked through the night to locate the missing boat passengers. At a Wednesday press conference, U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Jarod Toczko took time to thank the civilians who aided in Tuesday’s rescue.
“Those good samaritans called this distress case in, initially made us aware of it and then rescued people from the water. Your actions saved lives.”
The passengers were mostly family members and were holding a memorial service when the boat was hit by a wave and capsized 600 yards — about five football fields — from shore.
Commercial fisherman Shawn Chen Flading said the boat looked like a vessel more suited to calmer waters.
“ Those boats normally stick to the Delta, rivers and lakes. It’s not a seaworthy boat,” Flading said, adding that 20 people likely pushed the limit for a safe number of passengers on board.
Flading said conditions were so windy on Tuesday afternoon that he decided not to take his 79-foot fishing boat out. He said on days like that, the wind can add 2 to 3 feet to the height of waves.
“ One moment the bay can look very peaceful and calm, and within a blink of an eye, the wind can pick up, and the swells come, and it’s a totally different, more dangerous scenario,” Flading said.
James Smith, captain of the charter fishing boat California Dawn, based in Berkeley, was returning from a Salmon fishing trip when he heard a Coast Guard report that there was a vessel on fire a quarter mile from Alcatraz. He sped towards the scene.
“It was total chaos. There were people clinging to a board; there were people on the boat, which we didn’t know if it was going to sink on the spot. It was a big, terrifying mess,” Smith said.
But Smith doubted that winds and waves could be responsible for capsizing a boat so large.
“ I think something catastrophic happened,” Smith said. “There was probably no fire when the officials got on the scene, but there was definitely a fire there, because we could see the plumes of smoke coming from the boat.”
He said witnessing something like that “hit close to home” for him and his crew.
“ It’s just tough to see people going out for an enjoyable outing or a memorial, however enjoyable that is, and not expecting a boat to sink and take people down with it,” Smith said. “That’s a lot, man. That’s a lot to chew on.”
KQED’s Katie DeBenedetti contributed to this report.