A search began after reports of six overdue boaters Saturday. Officials said a child was rescued and in stable condition and the body of a teenager was recovered.
The U.S. Coast Guard recovered the body of a teenager and rescued an 11-year-old boy as it pressed its search for four boaters missing after their vessel capsized on Saturday off California, the authorities said.
The U.S. Coast Guard received a report about six overdue boaters at about 11:40 p.m. on Saturday from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, said Levi Read, chief petty officer with U.S. Coast Guard District 11.
Three of those on board were adults, and the others were ages 11, 14 and 17, Petty Officer Read said.
The group set out on a 21-foot blue-and-white motorized vessel from the Westside Marina in Bodega Bay around 3 p.m. for recreational crabbing, Petty Officer Read said.
The boaters were supposed to be home by 7 p.m. the same day. When they didn’t return, family members alerted the authorities.
Crews from several agencies, including the Coast Guard, the Sheriff’s Office and the California Air National Guard, searched a large area on Sunday that stretched from Bodega Bay south toward Point Reyes in Marin County and 20 miles offshore, Petty Officer Read said.
It was unclear on Sunday where the group went crabbing, where and when the boat capsized or what led up to it overturning.
The last cellphone ping the authorities received was around 4:30 p.m. on Saturday and about seven nautical miles west of Bodega Bay, Petty Officer Read said.
An 11-year-old boy was found alive off South Salmon Creek Beach at around 8 a.m. on Sunday. He was taken to a hospital and was stable.
The body of another child, a male, was recovered from the waters within the search area at about 10:15 a.m. on Sunday, Petty Officer Read said. It was unclear whether it was the 14-year-old or 17-year-old who was recovered.
He said the group was from the Corning, Calif., area, and that five are family members, though their relationship was unknown. One is a family friend, Petty Officer Read said.
“The search is ongoing,” he said. “Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the family that is missing.”
The water on Sunday was about 52 degrees, the average year-round temperature for the Pacific Ocean, Petty Officer Read said.
Winds were about 20 miles per hour, creating choppy seas and white caps, but the sky was otherwise clear and visibility was good, he said.
Bodega Bay, about 70 miles north of San Francisco, is a fishing hamlet of about 1,000 year-round residents where Dungeness crab is trapped several months of the year.
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