Boaters warned before death
By David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writer
Two O'ahu fisherman whose bodies were found Friday morning in waters off Kewalo Basin had been warned the night before to move their tiny boat out of the main Honolulu Harbor shipping channel, an experienced Hawai'i waterman said yesterday.
Kik's Hugho said he had dropped two harbor pilots off at a Japanese-owned container ship off O'ahu's south shore and was leading the 633-foot ship into Honolulu Harbor about 9:30 p.m. Thursday when he spotted a 12- or 13-foot Boston Whaler sitting low in the water in the channel entrance to the harbor.
Hugho said he pulled up next to the smaller boat in his 42-foot boat and talked to the two men.
"I told them, 'Guys, look over your shoulder,' and they were stunned to see the container ship bearing down on them," said Hugho, who has ferried harbor pilots to ships offshore for the past 15 years.
He said he used his boat to guide the two men in the small boat several hundred yards away from the channel, and left them in an area off Sand Island before returning to guide the NYK lines ship Iga into port.
Honolulu Harbor pilot Ed Enos said that as he stood on the bridge of the Iga as it headed into harbor, the Boston Whaler zipped under the Iga's bow from the left, traveled through the ship's blind spot directly in front of the vessel and reappeared off the right side of the bow.
Enos said it was a very dark evening, but he was able to continue tracking the boat for several hundred yards as it skimmed along the water toward Ala Moana Park, just outside the line where the surf was breaking.
After reading newspaper stories about the presumed drownings of boat owner Roy Okamoto and his fishing companion Mark Cameron, Hugho said he realized Okamoto had been the man at the tiller of the Boston Whaler he had stopped to warn.
"Roy Okamoto and I were classmates at Kalani, class of 1968. We were teammates on the football team," Hugho said.
Relatives have told investigators that Okamoto, 54, and Cameron, 44, often fished together, and had set out Thursday afternoon for what was to have been an overnight fishing trip.
Okamoto's capsized Boston Whaler was found by rescue workers on the reef fronting Ala Moana Beach Park in front of the tennis courts.
Autopsies were scheduled for yesterday. Rescue workers said neither of the men appeared to have any serious injuries or show any signs of having been hit by a passing boat or run over by a ship. The Boston Whaler had a few dings, which they attributed to the boat hitting the reef.
Hugho and Enos said they planned to file a report with the Coast Guard yesterday about what they saw Thursday night.
But a Coast Guard spokeswoman said the agency was not conducting an investigation because the incident did not involve a commercial vessel.
The state Department of Land and Natural Resources is investigating, said spokeswoman Deborah Ward. She declined further comment until the investigation is complete.
Hugho said it is not unusual to find small boats fishing in the channel entrance to Honolulu Harbor. "Of the seven 24-hour shifts I work each month, I would say that on five of those shifts we come across a boat in the channel entrance," he said.
When he talked to the two men in the Boston Whaler Thursday night, they appeared to be alert, responsive and cooperative, he said — unlike other boaters who refuse to move or are verbally abusive when asked to make way for ships entering or leaving the harbor.
Hugho, also a veteran crew member of the Hokule'a voyaging canoe, said he saw the Boston Whaler on his way out of the harbor to drop the two pilots off at the container ship.
He said he thought the two men would see the ship and clear out of the way before it headed for the harbor. "But sometimes these guys just get so wrapped up in their fishing, they just don't notice," Hugho said.
Other times, fishermen wait until the last second and then dart in front of oncoming ships, a move that Hugho calls "Russian roulette."
Later the same night, two other very large ships headed out of Honolulu Harbor.
A log maintained by the state Department of Transportation Harbors Division showed that Princess Cruise Lines Island Princess, a passenger liner, left the harbor at 10:51 p.m., while the Matson container ship Lurline departed at midnight.
Advertiser Staff Writer Curtis Lum contributed to this report. Reach David Waite at 525-7412 or dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com.
