Posted on: Thursday, March 10, 2005

Charter boat sinks; 6 on board rescued

By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

HILO, Hawai'i — Rough seas, a big fish and two huge waves were too much to handle for the Linda Sue II, a 35-foot charter fishing boat owned by Capt. Jeff Heintz.

The boat, named after Heintz's two daughters, sank Tuesday evening as it was returning from a daylong outing with the skipper, deck hand Brian Schroeder and two couples who had booked the charter. Heintz, 58, who owned the boat for 31 years, estimated his losses at $100,000, and said his insurance probably will pay only a third of that.

The ordeal began when they hooked a 900- to 1,000-pound marlin about 16 miles north of Honokohau Harbor.

"We were fighting it for two hours, and then it died and went down to the bottom, and it took us three more hours to hand-line it back up," Heintz said. "By that time we got a big kona storm that came in with 35-knot winds."

With the marlin weighing down the back of the boat, the Linda Sue II was buffeted by waves and winds as it made its way back down the Kona coast. As the boat rounded Keahole Point, it encountered 10- to 12-foot seas, Heintz said. At about 7:30 p.m., when it reached an area between the surf spot known as Pinetrees and Honokohau Harbor, "two big waves came and stood my boat right up on end. The bow went in the air and the tail went under the water, and the second wave put us down," he said.

Heintz had time to make two calls for help on his cellular phone before the Linda Sue II sank a quarter-mile offshore. The captain was thrown from the boat without a life vest, and he clung to a piece of fiberglass.

The charter passengers were wearing life jackets, but Schroeder wasn't. Fortunately, the deck hand used an empty fuel can for flotation and managed to reach some rocks near the shore.

Beacon lights on the life vests helped Hawai'i County Fire Department rescuers locate the passengers, who were pulled into a rescue boat. Schroeder, 21, was plucked from the rocks by the fire department helicopter.

"I went under the water six times, and I didn't think I was going to make it because I didn't have a life jacket on," Heintz said. "I had a lot of water in my system and kept coughing."

The sight of the helicopter gave him hope, so "I managed to just keep on trying," he said. "I was in the water probably close to an hour before they came and pulled me out with a hook."

Heintz praised the fire department, which he said had a helicopter over the passengers and deck hand in the water within 10 minutes after his first call.

Now, he is looking for a new boat to lease. "It's my whole business, and I have a very good business, so I have to try and find another boat," he said. "I can't be out of business."

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 935-3916.