1 Dead, 1 Missing as Canoe Capsizes

One man died and another was missing at sea Sunday after high winds and big waves flipped and broke their 40-foot outrigger canoe near Channel Islands Harbor, throwing all six paddlers into the frigid ocean for several hours.

John Devlin, 50, of Oxnard was already dead when the owner of a commercial fishing vessel spotted four men clinging to a red, white and blue pontoon about 3 1/2 miles offshore of Ventura Harbor about 12:30 p.m. None of those in the canoe had been wearing life vests, authorities said.

Fisherman Vuong Tran of Oxnard, who pulled the four men from the channel into his shrimp boat, the John Start, said the three men who were still alive were so cold they could barely speak. Tran said one of the men told him they had been in the water for four hours.

Benjamin Taitai, 50, and Michael Davis, 29, were treated for hypothermia at Ventura County Medical Center and released. Tino Rico was airlifted by helicopter from Ventura Harbor to St. John’s Medical Center in Oxnard, where he was treated and released.

More than an hour later, people sailing in the area detected a fifth man floating in the water about two miles off the coast near Mandalay Bay. Justin Heard, 28, of Oxnard was rushed to St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, where he was listed in critical condition Sunday night from hypothermia.

Meanwhile, officers from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, Ventura County Search and Rescue, Ventura Police Department and the Ventura Fire Department combed the beach near Mandalay Bay to look for the canoe’s sixth passenger, Scott Sullenger, while a helicopter and four boats from the Coast Guard and Ventura County Harbor Patrol searched the sea.

Sullenger had not been found by nightfall. Coast Guard officials said they would continue to search through the night.

Lt. j.g. Kenny O’Connor of the U.S. Coast Guard said the wind was blowing 30 to 40 knots and there were swells of 4 to 6 feet at the time of the accident.

Officials said they didn’t know how cold the water was in the channel, but that the water temperature in the harbor--which is usually warmer--was 56 degrees at noon.

Authorities said the six men left Silver Strand about 8 a.m. for outrigger canoeing practice.

About one mile from shore, a huge wave swamped their boat and broke it, according to a Ventura Fire Department press release.

The men detached the pontoon, authorities said, and tried to swim to shore. But strong winds blew them farther out to sea. After floating for several hours, Heard tried to swim to shore for help. A little later Sullenger, too, left the remaining four to try to swim for help.

About 12:30 p.m., the Coast Guard received a call from Tran’s commercial fishing vessel, said Coast Guard Officer Ken Coddington.

“There was a Mayday from the John Start,” Coddington said. “But the owner of the boat was of foreign extraction, so we couldn’t understand” much beyond that, he said.

The officers knew four men had been rescued but did not know their names or where the men had come from, Coddington said.

A short time later, a friend of the canoeists came in to the Coast Guard station at Channel Islands Harbor to report that they were late returning from their morning outing. That’s when the officers realized two men were still missing.

“That’s when we tied the two together,” Coddington said.

People on a sailboat called the Sea Mist spotted Heard floating in the water about two miles off Mandalay Bay and radioed the Coast Guard about 2 p.m.

Officer Shelton Rob of the Ventura County Harbor Patrol rushed to the site, where Heard was treading water, and pulled him from the ocean.

“He was cold,” Rob said of Heard. “He was hypothermic. The only thing he could say was his name was Justin.”

Tran, the owner of the 38-foot John Start, cruised into the Ventura Harbor as fast as he could with the four men he had picked up.

Tran said he had been at sea about an hour when he saw something bobbing in the ocean about half a mile away.

“It looked like a balloon,” Tran said. “I saw a head. He was waving. I drove high speed, and then I saw people.”

He said he came upon a piece of the outrigger canoe with four people clinging to it.

“They were all together, holding their dead friend,” he said.

He said the three survivors were so cold they couldn’t talk, but they had their eyes wide open.

One crawled into the cabin and collapsed on the floor. The other two were so cold they couldn’t walk, so Tran and his partner, Phuoc Pham, dragged them into the cabin, cranked up their stove, wrapped them in blankets and jackets, and gave them coffee and oranges.