Storm blamed in sailor’s death
A Ventura woman was killed when storm-whipped waves hurled her and her partner from their sailboat onto rocks one mile from San Simeon on Jan. 7, the Coast Guard says.
Audrey Richards, 42, and Don Upton were sailing from their home port of Ventura to Richmond, Calif. Storms that pelted Southern California with rain also unleashed 15-foot waves, 50-knot winds and downpours that tangled the rigging on the sailboat, Forty-Two.
A rescue boat from Morro Bay reached the vessel two hours after the sailors called for help. Coast Guard personnel instructed Richards and Upton to leap into the water so they could pluck the pair out, but Lt. Tony Migliorini, a Coast Guard spokesman, says a wave flung the pair into the Pacific and another wave smashed them on rocks and caused the rescue boat to list.
An onshore team recovered the sailors. Richards was killed and Upton was treated and released for hypothermia.
-- Ashley Powers
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