Tom Kisken/Ventura County Star
Dinh Nguyen is lucky to be alive and he knows it. The 57-year-old fisherman was in a boat that was sinking off the coast 17 miles northwest of Ventura late Friday afternoon. He said the boat’s captain and his friend, Tra Nguyen, ended up tethered to the vessel and was dragged down with it.
The commercial fishing vessel, Miss Jacinda, sank 17 miles northwest of Ventura. (Photo: Contributed photo Ventura County Star)
After scouring the ocean for 16 hours, Coast Guard officials called off the search for Tra Nguyen at 7:45 a.m. Saturday. A spokeswoman would neither comment on whether the missing boater was presumed dead nor confirm the man’s name.
The names and story come from Dinh Nguyen and friends who confirmed his presence on the commercial fishing boat. He spoke early Saturday afternoon at Ventura Harbor, where his rescuers took him.
He said he was so certain he was going to go down with the boat, like Tra Nguyen, he tied himself to a buoy. That way, his body would float to the surface and be found.
His buoy tangled in a line and was dragged down into the water. Dinh Nguyen was able to release himself and came to the surface next to the box that held a life raft.
He huddled in the raft for 30 minutes until another commercial fishing boat, the Victoria, rescued him and took him to Ventura Harbor.
The boat that sank, Miss Jacinda, was based out of Long Beach. An experienced fisherman, Dinh Ngyuen was new to the Miss Jacinda and served as a deckhand under boat captain Tra Nguyen, who has a wife and five children in Vietnam.
Coast Guard officials said the accident is being investigated. Moody Brickett, a fisherman who served as Dinh Nguyen’s interpreter in an interview with the Coast Guard, said the boat’s starboard fuel tank hit empty, causing the boat to list to its port side.
He said Tra and Dinh Nguyen were pulling up their last catch of ridgeback prawns when a wave hit the starboard side. The boat began to tip and take on water.
Brickett said Tra Nguyen radioed for help. The nearest fishing boat was six miles away. Dinh Nguyen said the captain tied a life ring around himself and jumped from the boat. But the line was tethered to the boat, and the captain was dragged down.
Dinh Nguyen believes he drowned. Coast Guard officials said they started searching for the missing boater at 6 p.m. Friday. They used helicopters, cutters and at least two boats from the Coast Guard station at Channel Islands Harbor. The effort ended after 16 hours.
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