Author(s): Spike Walker

Adventure

On the night of January 31 1998, the fishing vessel La Conte took on water and sank off the coast of Sitka, Alaska, in what was to be the worst storm in the state's history. Abandoning ship, the five-man crew desperately clung to life - and each other - in ferocious 90 foot seas, and freezing water. All would surely have perished were it not for the efforts of the Coast Guard Search and Rescue teams who flew their choppers into the heart of the storm with little hope of rescuing anyone.