” A sailor barely avoided becoming another grim statistic in the annals of the Graveyard of the Pacific on Jan. 3 after his sailboat’s engine conked out and his mast blocked him out of the vessel’s cabin in the midst of a gale and violent seas about a mile off Cape Disappointment.
The 36-foot vessel’s sole occupant contacted Coast Guard Station Cape Disappointment by cell phone at about 2:45 p.m. after the boat lost power and the mast had fallen, causing the vessel to become adrift near the Columbia River bar — a zone that has claimed hundreds of watercraft over the centuries.
There could hardly have been a worse time to be in the ocean off the Pacific County coast. Gusts reached 60 mph at the time and there was a combined swell of up to 20 feet.”
View the whole story here: https://www.chinookobserver.com/news/coast-guard-provides-more-details-on-friday-rescue/article_edd4342a-2f32-11ea-8dc1-3b2359474824.html