Finally Leaving Floras Lake
The OCT did follow the shoreline, up on the cliffs, to Blacklock point, but the storms of 1997 washed out the trail. So, I took the forest trail to the Airport, and then on to the south side of Blacklock point.
The entire area around Blacklock and the airport is covered with very scenic trails. The forest is very dense, and I expected to see gnomes popping out at any time.
The trails are mostly well marked. The only trouble I had was (correctly) guessing where the cutoff was to take us down to the beach instead of going to the end of Blacklock. The cutoff trail is small, and goes down quite steeply. Where it enters the beach, in a huge pile of driftwood, is quite hidden. I'd hate trying to find this trail if we were northbound.
Back on the beach, I hiked towards the Sixes river. This is generally a major river fjording place. Not this year! The river was not even flowing. We "crossed" it on a totally dry sand bank, with the ocean on one side, and the damned river on the other.
After crossing the Sixes river, I was in the boundary of Cape Blanco state park. I could see the lighthouse 2 miles ahead of us. To get to the campground, you hike almost all the way to the lighthouse, and then scramble up a steep trail.
As I neared the lighthouse, I found a perfect tomato washed ashore. It even sill had the label on it. Further down, I found a box of German paperback novels washed up, with a diabetic test kit nearby. I thought it was strange to find these types of things washed up.
I walked a few feet further, around a rock, and saw a huge field of debris washed up. Among other things, there was lots of fresh food, a dingy, propane tanks, pictures, first aid kit, bulkheads, shoes, a cane, life jackets, a bright orange survival suit, and much more.
After recognizing some of hull pieces, I figured out that it was the shipwreck of a mid-sized sailboat that had washed ashore. And, since the food was all fresh, the wreck was recent. As I was staring at all the debris, a Coast Guard helicopter flew overhead. Since the helicopter get on going by, I assumed they saw, and knew about the wreck.
From the shipwreck site, I climbed up Cape Blanco, and walked the 3/4 of a mile to the campground. I asked the park ranger if there was a shipwreck in the area. He replied "Yes, but no one has found it.". I told them we did!
So, I got on our cellphone, and called 911, and then the Coast Guard. Since I am a Coast Guard reservist, I was asked to go back down to the wreck and meet the Sheriff, State Police, and a Coast Guard Auxiliarist. The ranger gave me a ride down there.
Back down at the shipwreck site, I joined the CGAUX person and four police officers in a body search. The CG Helicopter returned to assist us.
I was told that the CG received a distress call around 3 or 4PM the previous day (Sept 11) from a sailboat reporting an electrical fire. The reported position was about 20 or 30 miles south of the shipwreck location. Helicopters and boats were sent out in an attempt to locate the vessel in distress, but nothing was found until I came acress the shipwreck.
The helicopter reported they found the remains of the sailboat on the west side of a rock about 1/4 mile from shore. They further reported finding a body on the rock. I could see the crew lower a person down to recover the body. Once the body was recovered, the 'copter returned to North Bend.
In our search of the beach, we did not find any more bodies, even though it was thought there were 4 or 5 persons on board. We did find more pictures, the name of the boat, and some log books. The CGAUX person spoke German, so that helped the investigation.
With the information we found, it was determined that the boat was out of Bremen, Germany. It appeared the owners had lived on the boat of tens of years. Broken up sections of the boat the washed ashore and place names and dates of locations they had visited. There are places like Alaska, Vancouver, BC, and location in the South Pacific.
The Sheriff took the duty of informing the German counsulate of the shipwreck so next-of-kin could be notified. In respect to the families, I am purposely omitting the name of the boat, and port of call.
What appears to have happened is that the electrical fire on the boat did no structure damage, it disabled the boat's electrical system. That would have disabled any form of electronic navigation. We surmised the fire was not serious, since nothing that washed ashore showed any signs of fire.
Without navigation, the crew of the sailboat had to use deadrecogning for positioning. I think they thought they were further west and south then their actual position. This means they thought they were further out at sea than they were. Visibility was good, but there was cloud cover, so they could not have used celestial navigation.
The entire crew was probably below repairing the damage when they hit the rock. With the cold waters of the Pacific, and the impact of hitting the rock, there was little to no time to put on a survival suit or life jacket, or fire a distress flare. In fact, I found several unused flare kits and a survival kit. The crew appeared to be elderly, and the shore was too far to swim in the cold waters.
The Sheriff saw that I was tired after a day of hiking, and then searching, so he gave me a ride back to camp. The Park Host gave me a large load of firewood as thanks for the help in the search.
Since the September 11th attacks were big in the news, there was hardly a mention of this. The only thing I could find was in the Coos Bay newspaper, and is here. Or, here is a backup link. Interesting thing about this short article is that we found the shipwreck at 2:20PM, and the article refers to us as Coast Guard Searchers. Which, I guess I was in a sort of way.
I was so caught up in the moment, that I never thought to take pictures. Oh well. So, I revisited the site almost one year later, and still found some pieces of wreckage. Here are some pictures:
The rock in the middle of the picture is the rock the sailboat hit
(below)
A view of the Cape Blanco lighthouse from the beach:
Below are some pictures of the beach where the wreckage was strewn:
