FRIDAY HARBOR — A Coast Guard cutter from Port Angeles rushed to the scene where a whale-watching excursion boat ran aground in the San Juan Islands today with 80 passengers aboard.
There were no injuries, but the Coast Guard reported that the Friday Harbor-based Odyssey was taking on water north of Lopez Island at a rate of about a gallon a minute.
The craft was reported in no danger because the boat is equipped with “dewatering devices,” the Coast Guard reported.
Group/Air Station Port Angeles received a 5:30 p.m. radio call from the Odyssey that the 65-foot vessel had run aground.
There were no injuries among the passengers, no pollution was evident and damage to the vessel was minimal, the crew reported to Port Angeles dispatchers.
The cutter Swordfish, an 87-foot patrol boat, responded to the scene, and a boarding team discovered that the wood-hulled Odyssey was taking on water.
The whale watching vessel Western Prince II and several other recreational vessels from Friday Harbor offloaded the 80 passengers and transported them back to Friday Harbor, the Coast Guard reported.
The Swordfish was remaining on scene to monitor the vessel, while two crew members onboard the Odyssey wait for the tide to free the vessel.
The Coast Guard’s Henry Blake, a 175-foot buoy tender based in Everett, was in the area and standing by to assist, a Coast Guard spokesman said.
