Quick Take
The boat that caught fire off Pleasure Point and sank last week has been retrieved from Monterey Bay but is unsalvageable, according to engineer Edward Arellano. He is back in Anaheim as he continues to work with insurance and search for new employment.
A 48-foot commercial fishing boat that caught fire and sank off Pleasure Point last week is now back above water, having been pulled out of Monterey Bay on Friday. However, that’s of little comfort for the men who were aboard the vessel.
Edward Arellano, engineer for the boat named the Navigator, told Lookout that it’s a “complete loss,” something he expected after a narrow escape that involved dumping buckets of water into the boat’s smokestacks and depleting several fire extinguishers in an unsuccessful attempt to control the blaze. Still out of work, and having lost a major portion of his possessions on the boat, Arellano is back in Anaheim, picking up the pieces after the blaze.
“I’m kind of couch surfing in between some friends, because I moved out to Monterey with the assumption I wasn’t going to be coming back down here,” he said. “When I left my apartment, I moved out of there and moved into that boat.”
Arellano, 32, was aboard the 51-year-old squid-fishing boat with its captain and his adoptive grandfather, 82-year-old Richard McCann, when the vessel caught fire last Wednesday morning. Arellano said that a generator had caused the insulation to ignite. The incident both upended McCann’s plans for retirement and was a major blow to Arellano, who had just begun working on fishing boats after years of aspiring to do so.
Arellano said he is still working through the insurance process, which he hopes will move fairly quickly, since he currently has no real means to provide for himself.
“They’re trying to figure something out for me, because I can’t work and I’ve been borrowing money to survive. It’s been kind of difficult at the moment,” he said, adding that he’s relying on the friends and family who still live in Southern California. “I told [the insurance adjuster] don’t take too long because providing for yourself isn’t easy in California.”
Arellano added that because his carpentry and contractor tools were on board the boat, he cannot work, which would have softened the blow. Before working on the boat, he ran his own business where he would install appliances or furnishings in people’s homes. “Then I was offered this opportunity to go and make money on a fishing vessel and it ended with me losing all my possessions.”
The fact that Arellano was in the process of purchasing the boat just adds insult to injury. “I spent five months fixing that ship up and putting a lot of pride, effort and work into it,” he said.
Still, there could be a silver lining. Arellano said that he is in touch with the captain of another fishing boat currently under repair, and she and her husband might hire him to do the electrical work on that boat. He added that they might even help him buy some tools back.
Arellano said he hopes to get on a boat once again with McCann so that the 82-year-old captain can enjoy a proper retirement.
“The man was happy being on that boat. He wanted to work,” he said. “I know he thinks he doesn’t have many years left with us, so he wants to go out doing what he loves.”
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