Newport City Council
Monday evening

The Newport City Council has launched a new tradition in the community involving the Coast Guard. In honor of the Coast Guard’s tireless efforts to protect life and property along the coast, the council awarded it’s first-ever “Sailor of the Quarter” award to Coastguardsman Jesse Tye. Guardsman Tye serves at the Newport Coast Guard Station and was most recently involved in the rescue operation of those aboard the Fishing Vessel Chevelle that went down inside the Newport Jetties earlier this year. Guardsman Tye has also participated in other rescues and performed many rescue tows of disabled vessels back to port.

Here is the text of his nomination form for “Sailor of the Quarter” from the Coast Guard

SN Tye, you are nominated for Sailor of the Quarter for your hard work, dedication and respect of your shipmates. Your hard work in becoming a fully qualified member on all unit assets before deadlines. Volunteering your off-time to become the only BTM Qualified non-rate at the unit for the last quarter. Your dedication and perseverance, putting in for special assignment to Bahrain a second time to expand your knowledge of your perspective rate. The time you spent on and off-duty helping other shipmates become qualified on unit assets. Your leadership coordinating and executing Color guard events upholds the units sterling reputation. Your supervisors continually praise you for needing little to no supervision on all projects no matter the size in deck department. The work you put in on your liberty time helping maintain and clean the range. Your customs and courtesies are always in keeping with our core values; on two separate occasions retired Coast Guard members made sure to inform a chief, how impressed they were with your knowledge on unit assets and respect. Your work ethic and knowledge are beyond reproach receiving the top score out of all crewmen for RFO. The assignment you did for Shipmates 23; disciplined initiative, were and are the values which need to be embodied by young members; such as you do to ensure you are ready for future challenges.

Here are a few significant cases that he was involved in:

03/10/12 – F/V Chevelle ran aground on the North Jetty. CG 47268 assisted in the evacuation of the Crew

08/02/12 – F/V Two Fishers had to be towed due to their propellers being fouled up in crab gear.

09/03/12 – F/V Master Chris became disabled 25 miles off shore and was towed back to Newport by MLB Victory.

I truly appreciate your interest in sharing SN Tye’s accomplishments with the community and once again apologize for the delay in providing you with your request.

Respectfully,
BMC Carlos D. Hessler
Station Yaquina Bay

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1:40pm
A 27-foot pleasure craft has lost its engine two miles off Ona Beach. The Coast Guard put out a call for any nearby mariners to give it a tow back into Newport, but apparently got no takers. So it appears the Coast Guard will be headed out to fetch the white with blue striped craft.

2:10pm
Pleasure craft got motor started and is now crossing the bar at Newport. Big waves to navigate.

2:15pm
They made it in.

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Center screen, small piece of mast rigging sticking up out of the water

The sunken Fishing Vessel Two Mikes remains on the bottom, partially wedged against the base of Newport’s north jetty. At the center of the pickture, just below the waterline on the jetty, center screen, a small piece of the vessel’s mast assembly is barely sticking above the water. The vessel’s bow is caught in the rocks at the base of the jetty with the rest of the boat sticking up vertically in the water column, lifted by the air in the stern’s air tight steering control compartment. Coast Guard crews inspect the vessel three times a day, from a motor lifeboat and from the vantage point of a Coast Guard helicopter. The Coast Guard continues to wait and see what the sea will do with the Two Mikes, whether it pulls it out father seaward, or sends it easterly toward the beach. Salvage options will likely be determined by which way the vessel goes. Primary concern remains due to the large quantity of diesel fuel still aboard the boat.

The salvage company that is disposing of the Japanese dock at Agate Beach says it can probably handle a salvage operation of the Two Mikes in addition to the dock.

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The Fishing Vessel Two Mikes, out of Ilwaco, WA, ran aground on the north side of Newport’s north jetty late Sunday night. Shoved against the rocks by the waves, the boat’s bow was sliced open by a rock and the vessel immediately began taking on water, very fast. Both the captain and his crewman jumped to safety onto the jetty. A few waves later the boat separated from the jetty and sank in 15-20 feet of water where it’s been lashed back and forth by the waves ever since.

Both Captain Todd Holt and his crewman Shane Lague were escorted off the jetty at around 1am this morning. They were checked out at PCH and were found to be cold, but otherwise okay. Captain Holt told the Coast Guard that the cause of the accidental beaching on the jetty may have been caused by a faulty radar unit. He said they visually spotted the white beacon that flashes at the tip of the south jetty. He said the radar seemed to indicate that they were already in the channel between the south and north jetties. But they weren’t. So as they approached from the north they pulled a hard steer to port, which headed them straight into the rocks of the north jetty. Both Holt and Lague escaped but they lost their two dogs. Captain Holt said they had left Ilwaco Sunday morning at 5am, traveled all day down the coast and arrived off Newport shortly after 11pm.

In the meantime, diesel fuel has been leaking from the vessel. Although it is dissipating very rapidly, a sheen has been spotted drifting seaward from the wreck straight out to sea. As a precautionary action, the Coast Guard has placed a spill capture boom across part of the Yaquina Bay entrance. They say they have not spotted diesel inside the bay but that could change when the tide starts coming in this afternoon. However, the Coast Guard says it is unlikely that any contamination would make it as far upriver as the oyster beds on the Yaquina River.

The Coast Guard reports that their Portland Command is working with a salvage company that is already mobilizing to off-load what diesel may be still aboard the F/V Two Mikes. After that they’ll get busy salvaging the boat itself.

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