LaForge called the motor lifeboat and then the station. The station answered: "I think it sounded like they said, 'we capsized and are disoriented.'" The watchstanders said that they didn't know if the 44-footer was reporting the sailboat capsized and the people disoriented, or what. Information about the sailboat continued to blare from the radio in interrupted streams. We returned to the station. Still no communications with the 44 footer. I watch both LaForge and Placido becoming uneasy. "Flares." "What color?" asked LaForge. "Red." Red means distress. "I'm going!" Placido shouted back, as he ran toward the second 44-footer. "Let's go back to the bar," LaForge said to me. Parking again at our observation point, we soon saw a red flare arching through the sky. I have participated in a number of cases involving flare sightings, all of which proved to be false. This is the first instance of actually seeing one fired in distress. Suddenly, a bright light was seen moving through the darkness up, down, sideways, showing a rolling sea. The 44-footer with Petty Officer Placido and his crew of three aboard came into sight. The boat pitched and rolled, as only a motor lifeboat can in a heavy sea. It then turned from the protection of the river to make it's run across the bar.

I will always carry with me the sight of Petty Officer Placido's 44-foot motor lifeboat as it met a swell during it's passage-swells later estimated up to 20 feet. A searchlight probed the dark and the waters ahead, looking for obstacles. A small white boat rising. Rising. Rising until it seemed to stand on it's stern. White water almost enveloped the small boat. Then came the plunge downward. Master Chief LaForge kept up a conversation with the lifeboat, on his radio. Meanwhile, the sailboat was now definitely a case. Transmissions came in from a frightened woman who was having a hard time understanding the Quillayute River Station's instructions-further complicating a situation that was worsening by the minute. Then everyone lost communication with Petty Officer Placido's boat. Calls from Master Chief LaForge and the station went unanswered.
A woman's voice: "Are you coming out to help us?" There is a call for helicopter assistance, which entails a long flight from Port Angeles in the heavy wind.

More calls.