Mick Diamond, or Mike, depending on who you talked to, wasn’t everyone’s favorite person. But if you loved him, you liked him, even when he drove you up the wall, according to his son, Joe.
Diamond, 63, and a crewmate went missing on the fishing vessel Evening nearly two weeks ago after they departed the Westport Marina in Grays Harbor on the central coast of Washington State. Diamond’s crewmate, who has not yet been publicly identified, was found alive by a Vancouver Island fishing family 13 days later, in a life raft 70 miles northwest of Cape Flattery.
That miraculous rescue came a day after the U.S. Coast Guard called off a search for the two missing men that spanned 14,000 square miles. The surviving fisherman was taken to a Vancouver Island hospital and is stable, the Coast Guard said Thursday.
Thirteen days after Diamond’s boat went missing, Ryan Planes and his uncle John were setting up their fishing gear off the coast of Vancouver Island when they saw a little life raft drift by, Planes said in a comment on Facebook. The man in the raft was out of food and water, and had used his last flare to get their attention.
Planes and his uncle rescued the man and took him to the Canadian Coast Guard.
“He just hugged me and started crying and I just couldn’t believe it. Tears of joy,” John Planes told KIRO 7 News.
Diamond has not been found. His family says they were told via a statement from the survivor that the boat capsized after it got caught in a trough between rough swells, and that Diamond told the surviving crew member to get to the life raft while he took control of the vessel.
“I have the most respect for that coastline out of all. It’s a pretty challenging place, as far as the currents and the tides go,” said Diamond’s son, Joe. “It’s unrealistic to think he could get out of that.”
Diamond and his crewmate sailed out of the Westport Marina on Oct. 12 for what was intended to be a three-day tuna fishing trip.
Officials tried using cellphone data to locate the men. “But of course the last ping that we got was just outside of Westport,” said Coast Guard Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier.
Diamond bought the F/V Evening, a 43-foot wooden troller, from Wanda and Butch Henry in August, Wanda Henry told The Seattle Times.
The boat was built in 1941 in Astoria, Ore., but was well-maintained and had spent most of its life in Westport, Henry said. Her husband fished salmon and albacore with it for 24 years, and the life raft on board could carry four people and held about a week’s worth of supplies.
“It’s a tragedy,” Henry said. “And it’s a miracle that kid is alive. That is an absolute miracle.”
Jason Barker, a friend of Diamond’s and a co-owner of The King Tide Family Bakery and Pub in Westport, posted a photo of Diamond on his Facebook page three days ago to ask if anyone had seen him or the missing boat.
Barker described his friend as driven, and at times cantankerous, and an excellent golfer. Barker said he helped design the website for Diamond’s fishing business, Diamond Head Tuna.
“Probably a month and half ago, he told me that if anything happened, ‘tell my family I love them,’ ” Barker said.
The tuna fleet that calls the Westport Marina home is like a “little family,” said fourth-generation fisherman Ben Bodwell, who spoke to The Seattle Times from his own tuna boat near the empty slip where the Evening used to moor.
“I think the biggest takeaway from it all at this point is that fishing is a dangerous game,” Bodwell said. “It sobers you to lose a vessel you knew so well.”
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