By Zach Jablonski / Peninsula Daily News
SHINE — No one was harmed after a 65-foot yacht partially sank near the Hood Canal Bridge in 80- to 90-foot-deep water.
The yacht “Silver Lining” was carrying eight people when it reportedly hit a submerged object and began to sink Tuesday, said Petty Officer 1st Class Levi Read of the Coast Guard.
The passengers were able to escape the vessel by boarding their dinghy and getting ashore, Read said.
The Coast Guard received the distress call at 3:30 p.m.
There was a small lube oil spill from the boat, said Andrea Unger, a member of the state Department of Ecology Spill Response Team.
No diesel is suspected to have leaked.
“There was sheening,” Read said. “We were told there was 300 gallons of diesel and 12 gallons of oil onboard the vessel.”
TowBoatUS and Global Diving and Salvage were hired by the vessel’s insurer to assist with the rescue, recovery and containment of the potential oil spills, said Read.
Capt. Roger Slade of TowBoatUS was dispatched by Jefferson County 9-1-1 at approximately 5:30 p.m. When the team was en-route they were informed the boat had reportedly sunk already, so they returned to Port Hadlock, Slade said.
At 7:30 p.m., they were sent back out when it was confirmed the boat had only partially sunk and was drifting with the current. Using two tow vessels, they were able to tow it to shallow water by around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, Slade said.
Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputies also responded to the incident Tuesday night.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the boat was still resting in the shallows near the 300 block of North Beach Drive in Port Ludlow as the salvage team worked to patch the holes in the hull and pump the water off the vessel for it to regain buoyancy, Unger said.
Although the boat is out of deep water, Unger said there is still a risk to the local marine wildlife.
“Ecology is always a concern until the vessel is out of the water,” Unger said. “Salvages are never perfect, but it looks like it’s going well.”
The low tide was starting at 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, and that was when the main pumping was going to occur, so the vessel could be lifted with the incoming tide, Unger said.
That is the first plan, and Unger said the salvage crew was confident it should work, if not, their team has air bags to also lift vessel with.
Once the vessel is back on top of the water, the team will remove the diesel from the boat to prevent possibilities of leakage.
This story originally appeared in the Peninsula Daily News, a sibling paper to the Herald.
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