March has been a sad month for us. On the 8th, we took five guests on our 43 foot trawler on a ride down to Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. While in Raccoon Strait, our port engine caught fire causing all of us to abandon ship after May Day instructions. Fortunately for all of us, two Vietnamese fishermen, who were retrieving a crab pot, heard our distress call and came along side to take us to a Coast Guard boat that arrived about 15 minutes later. We were very fortunate that no one was injured and the boat, with a full load of fuel, burned for over 3 hours despite the efforts of two fire boats to suppress the fire. Vessel is a total loss so now to deal with the insurance company. We were looking to get out of boating but not in this manner.

Ric Laurence CdeP 1954