At 12:55 a.m. on Saturday morning, July 20, Clallam County Sheriff’s Deputies conducted a beach rescue operation involving two persons from a 32-foot Bayliner boat that had beached on the Dungeness spit in Sequim.

The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office received a mutual assistance call from the U.S. Coast Guard requesting assistance for a beached boat, the Saratoga Passage on the Dungeness spit. Coast Guard boats were unable to respond due to the low tidal conditions in the area. 

Deputy Mark Millet (boating officer) and Sergeant John Hollis (Search and Rescue coordinator) responded to the Dungeness lighthouse with the assistance of the Dungeness lighthouse keeper and his off road utility vehicle. Upon the deputies’ arrival, the vessel was found nearly parallel to the shoreline with the surf breaking, causing the vessel to violently shift on and off the shoreline. 

The operator of the vessel, James Grever, 80, and passenger David Wilcox, 58, both of Whidbey Island, were safely taken off of the vessel and the vessel was made secure to the shore until later arrangements could be made to have the vessel removed from the beach. 

The accident is under investigation by the Sheriff’s Office boating unit. Alcohol and drug use were not suspected.