The Associated Press
Published: October 20, 2006
Last Modified: October 20, 2006 at 03:09 PM
The parents of a man who survived a capsizing in the North Pacific said their son had been released from a hospital.
Kevin Ferrell, 28, was the only survivor among four crewmen who entered the water Wednesday when the 49-foot, 50-ton Ocean Challenger capsized about 60 miles south of Sand Point, a community off the tip of the Alaska Peninsula.
The bodies of skipper David "Cowboy" Hasselquist, 51, of Hoonah and crewman Walter Foster, 26, of Westport, Wash., were pulled from the water by the Coast Guard.
A search for the missing man, Steve Esparza, 26, of Kodiak, was called off Thursday. He had not been wearing a survival suit, the Coast Guard said.
Ferrell was able to call his mother in Lynchburg, Va., a few hours after his rescue. A Coast Guard rescue swimmer helped hoist him from the water into a helicopter.
"We've talked a couple of times," his mother, Pam Caldwell, told the Lynchburg, Va., News and Advance on Thursday.
Ferrell was the only crewman wearing a survival suit.
"Kevin seems very concerned about the victims' families," his mother said. "He's spending a lot of his time visiting them right now. He's trying to get himself healthy. He's on antibiotics as a precautionary measure. He swallowed some ocean, of course. He was out there for some time."
Caldwell said her son never was in serious condition.
"Those reports were all wrong," she said. "We talked to him four hours after the incident. He was in shock, but he's OK. The hospital let him go last night."
Her son was a whitewater canoeist before moving to Alaska about five years ago.
"He has had all kinds of special rescue classes," she said. "He's very skilled in the water. He knows what he's doing."
The Ocean Challenger had been fishing for black cod near the Sanak Islands and was traveling back to Sand Point when it capsized in high seas. It sent out a mayday to a car carrier, which relayed the emergency message to the Coast Guard.
"There was a car carrier vessel in the area that heard the mayday and circled around him about five times," Caldwell said. "They kind of kept an eye on him until the helicopter got there."
Officials called off the search for Esparza after scouring more than 1,730 square miles in the North Pacific for two days, said Petty Officer Sara Francis.
"The chances of finding someone alive in these kinds of water temperatures after 24 hours is extremely low," Francis said. "After 48 hours, that chance drastically reduces."
She said the water temperature had been 48 degrees.
Officials said they did not know what caused the boat, home-ported in Adak, to capsize and sink. Francis said the Coast Guard was investigating and planned to talk to Ferrell on Friday.
