3 Fishermen Saved After Boat Capsizes

Three commercial fishermen clinging to boards were plucked by helicopter from the stormy Pacific on Wednesday after their 68-foot boat capsized in eight-foot swells and 30 knot winds off Newport Beach.

“There was a time we thought we wouldn’t make it,” said Kelly Green, 21, a crew member of the Newport Beach-based Capaz. “We were sitting out there on those boards, bobbing up and down, with no one and nothing else in sight. It doesn’t get much closer than this.”

Green, his friend Mark Schones, and owner and skipper Steve Shipkey were returning about 4 p.m. from a six-day trip with a catch of blue marlin when heavy seas covered the boat about 15 miles off shore. They radioed the Coast Guard before taking to the water. After about 20 minutes, Green said they spotted a freighter.

“I took out my life jacket and waved,” he said. “ I thought they saw us. But then all of a sudden. It changed direction.

I said ‘Hey, what’s this? Don’t leave us here.’ ”

The next 45 minutes was “sheer mental torture,” Green said.

“There was shark out there, all right,” he said. “We would lower our catch in the water to keep it fresh. When we hoisted it up, there were large chunks missing . . . shark bite sizes.”

A Coast Guard helicopter eventually spotted the men and took them to John Wayne Airport, where they declined treatment.