Boat sank, sailor gone: Remains of mysterious shipwreck wash up on California beach
As people watched from land Saturday, teams from various agencies combed the sea and shore near Cayucos, trying to solve the mystery of the marine debris that had just that day begun littering the sand and rocks and water.
By that afternoon, the searchers located a sunken sailboat, but didn’t find anybody aboard the vessel or in the surrounding waters. Divers found the registration numbers on the craft, but computer searches didn’t turn up any information about the owner or where the boat had been moored.
This left officials with one question: What exactly happened?
As of Monday, some aspects of the story were still as murky as choppy seas, though authorities have been able to make some educated guesses based on evidence at the scene — as well as a mysterious phone call allegedly made to the Coast Guard on Sunday morning by the father of the boat’s captain.
Still, plenty of questions remain about what exactly happened off the shore of Cayucos this weekend.
What happened to mysterious boat sunk near Cayucos?
The incident apparently began Thursday afternoon, when a man reportedly was sailing alone parallel to the onshore area between Cayucos Point and Villa Creek, according to Morro Bay Harbor District Director Eric Endersby.
The sailor anchored the boat fairly close to shore, perhaps trying to get shelter from gale-force winds.
Maybe the sailor lost control of the vessel, Endersby theorized; maybe it then ran aground and began to break up on the rocky coastline.
The anchored boat “probably beat itself to death in the tidepools,” Endersby said.
“The fellow abandoned it and scrambled ashore,” he said.
The harbor director said the sunken boat was tucked in tight to the coastline, and couldn’t be easily seen from the highway.
Whatever happened, the sailor managed to get safely off the boat and to shore, where he is believed to have shot off some flares — which nobody reported seeing.
Endersby said the sailor then made his way to a Cayucos hotel, where he stayed the night and then got in touch with his father. The father bought the sailor a train ticket home.
On Saturday, the owner of a Morro Bay boat-renting company was walking along Estero Bluffs when he began finding pieces of boat parts and debris, Endersby said.
“He’s a professional captain, so he knew what he was finding,” Endersby said.
When some of the debris included food packaging with a recent date on it, the man knew that whatever had happened was recent. So he called the Morro Bay Harbor Department.
It was news to them.
Agencies responded in force. Among them were Harbor Department personnel on jet skis, two helicopters, SLO County Sheriff’s Office dive team members, California State Park rangers and a Coast Guard boat fielding communications between the teams and others.
As the full incident-command post onshore drew a gallery of onlookers, the rescuers located more debris.
By midday Saturday, one of the helicopter pilots had spotted the submerged craft in 6 to 8 feet of relatively clear water, and the search to uncover the mystery of the shipwreck began.
As of Monday, there was still a lot officials didn’t yet know, Endersby said, like exactly where the sailor spent Saturday night, how he got from the hotel to the train station, where he went from there and the boat’s home port.
The case remains open, Endersby said, if for no other reason than officials would like to have more information about what really happened.
Anyone with details about the incident is encouraged to call the Los Angeles, Long Beach Coast Guard Command Center at 310-521-3801.
This story was originally published December 14, 2021 at 10:59 AM with the headline "Boat sank, sailor gone: Remains of mysterious shipwreck wash up on California beach."
