Los Cabos, Baja California Sur — The owner of a fishing boat that sank last week has shared what happened to cause the sinking of his vessel. According to Alex R, the owner of Protocol, his boat was taken down by a blue marlin.
During a tourist fishing expedition on July 18, the boat Protocol left Cabo San Lucas with a crew of six. While at sea, one of the tourists caught a blue marlin. While it is normal for a boat to take on a bit of water when fighting a fish of that magnitude, this fish actually sank the boat.
While the tourist hung on to the reel for more than 45 minutes fighting the fish, the back of the boat began to take on more and more water. They were approximately 35 miles along the San Jaime Bank off the coast of Cabo San Lucas at the time. Others from on board started to bail using buckets, however, it was too late. Protocol had taken on too much water.
The captain was able to radio for help around 3:00 p.m., listing his coordinates just before his equipment stopped working. The crew then began to vacate, jumping into the sea after the life raft that was tossed in moments before the boat went down.
Members of the Naval Search and Rescue were part of the team that began looking for the bright yellow and orange life raft with six men. After a few hours of searching, the raft was located and transferred to the Navy station where the men were assessed by paramedics before being released.