The incident comes as relatively mild weather transitions into an El Niño winter that is expected to stir up heavy swells capable of causing havoc in local waters.
The episode also highlights a little-known fact: The local Coast Guard sector is responsible for more searches and rescues than any other sector in the country. U.S. Coast Guard officers at the agency’s San Francisco sector were deployed to 1,664 search-and-rescues from October 2008 to September of this year. That is more than any other Coast Guard sector in the country, according to U.S. Coast Guard Lt. j.g. Jeremy Pichette. That sector encompasses the Coastside and extends from Monterey Bay north to Bodega Bay.
  
(Use arrows above to view more photos) |
Forty-nine-year-old Matthew Runte of Walnut Creek was the 54th person to die over the period. He was pronounced dead at Seton Medical Center Coastside in Moss Beach Friday night.
Runte owned the Sunyata, the sailboat that capsized Friday evening. Runte’s shipmate, 52-year-old Michael Emmerich of El Dorado, emerged from the overturned boat unharmed and was picked up at Pillar Point Harbor by family members that night, according to Pillar Point Harbor Assistant Harbormaster John Draper.
The two men were headed north to Berkeley after spending Thanksgiving with family and friends in Santa Cruz, Draper said. High surf and small craft advisories were in effect, warning of 14- to 18-foot waves and 20-knot winds off the Coastside on Friday. The rough weather prompted a warning from the Coast Guard.
A beachgoer spotted the 35-foot Sunyata foundering at about 4:25 p.m. Friday and called 911. Shortly thereafter, someone on the boat fired off an emergency flare. Pillar Point Harbor Patrol officers deployed to the area and pulled Emmerich from the boat – the only man they found, Draper said. Emmerich told the Harbor Patrol that Runte was in the water. Coast Guard officers in a helicopter and two rescue boats continued scanning the area for while the Harbor Patrol towed the Sunyata in to shore.
About an hour later, at 5:37 p.m., the Coast Guard helicopter spotted Runte, unconscious, floating in the surf. Harbor patrol members retrieved him and arranged for his transport to the Moss Beach hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Pichette said the turbulent swells and setting sun made visibility tough during the hour-long search effort.
“Fifteen- to 25-foot swells are significant, even just in transit and conducting search patterns in that area along Pillar Point,” he said.
“Even the most experienced mariner can find themselves in a situation they’ve never been in before,” Pichette added. “This is a true unfortunate reminder of the unknowns that exist when you’re out there in those types of conditions.”
w