A Coast Guard boat crew rescued a hunter from Coghlan Island after his boat filled with water on Thursday.
Coast Guard Sector Juneau watchstanders were notified after the man reached his wife via cellphone and she reported his stranding, according to a Coast Guard release. The initial call came in at 10:18 a.m., said Petty Officer 3rd Class Lauren Dean, a public affairs specialist for the Coast Guard.
“We’re not sure how it happened,” Dean said in a phone interview Friday. “He became stranded on Coghlan Island after his boat filled with water.”
Sector Juneau deployed a 45-foot response boat and was able to retrieve the man without incident, even as the weather worsened. The man was wearing cold weather survival gear and was in good condition when he was found. The temperature was roughly 15 degrees with 1 foot seas when the man was rescued.
“We want to push the importance of having proper survival gear but also alternate means of communication,” Dean said. “It’s great that he had a cellphone so he could reach his wife, but if he hadn’t been able to, things could have been much different.”
His boat is tied off and they do have plans to go get it, Dean said.
“During the winter, we get more overdue hunters,” Dean said. “Hikers, more so, in the summer.”
• Contact reporter Michael S. Lockett at 757-621-1197 or mlockett@juneauempire.com.
Coghlan Island is seen at the entrance of the Don D. Statter Harbor in Auke Bay in this file photo from 2014. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire File)
