Ronald Johansen, 22, was out camping with his brother and cousin in Chagvan Bay last week. After bagging some geese, Johansen set out alone by skiff Friday afternoon to return home to Goodnews Bay. The other two were to follow in a separate boat later. Johansen's trip should've taken an hour and half, and the waters outside the sand bars were calm as he set out.
Those conditions, he said in a KDLG interview Tuesday, changed quickly.
"Out of nowhere the west wind hit the outgoing tide and it started making swells out there. These were 8- to 10-foot swells," he recalled.
Johansen battled the chop in his 14-foot skiff.
"I was going straight up and down on the back side of the wave, and by the time I got to the bottom there was another bigger wave that hit the bow of the boat," he said. "It shot me straight underwater, and then the boat shot back out the water, and I was still holding on."
Johansen was wearing a life jacket, but suspected he needed more floatation. In the skiff he had bundles of firewood collected from the trip. He says he grabbed one, threw it overboard, and jumped in after it.
"As soon as I jumped overboard, holding onto the stump and the wood, I looked back and another wave hit the skiff and it did a barrel roll," he said. "I jumped off just in time."
He was alone in the water, no one knew where he was, and passers-by were unlikely. As he started to drift out further towards open ocean, Johansen used his emergency radio to call for help.
"Twenty minutes of being in the water (and) my legs went numb. Thirty minutes and my arms went numb. I tied myself to the log and told myself, 'If I die, I am going to die tied to this log so they can find me.' "
He recalled a moment of panic as he decided to swim away from his makeshift raft. Thoughts of family sent him back to the safety of the logs. The firewood wasn't his only company in the open water of the Bering Sea.
"There was a school of sea lions out there this whole time. I was six feet away from the sea lions, who were just watching me. They were just grunting around and watching me," he said.
His radio calls were being received, but that didn't mean a rescue was guaranteed. Those back in the village notified boats, the Coast Guard and others. Phone calls, text messages and VHF traffic were flying out of Goodnews Bay Friday evening, frantically seeking some help.
The Coast Guard says one volunteer vessel made an effort toward Johansen's approximate location but was turned around by the rough conditions. Now late into the evening and unsure about rescue efforts, Johansen tried to make himself as visible as possible.
"As soon as I got on top of a big swell, I would push myself up with a log to try and reach my hand as high as I could."
Bethel-based Yute Air was among those notified of the situation. Yute's dispatch was able to direct pilot Ernie Turentine to detour from his route back to Bethel, and instead he flew south toward Chagvan. The rough seas, Turentine recalled, made it near impossible to search for Johansen or his skiff.
"You had some really big waves out there," he said in an interview Wednesday, adding that the rough conditions made it near impossible to discern any objects on the rough sea surface.
Then he spotted the swamped boat, but not Johansen. By VHF, he relayed its location to Johansen's brother and cousin, who headed that way. The tide was going out, so Turentine continued his search further seaward.
Turentine says he never saw Johansen, but given the swamped boat's location, Johansen's brother and cousin soon did.
Johansen was hauled out after what he thinks may have been an hour and a half in the cold, choppy Bering Sea. The boat headed for Platinum.
"My wife and my kids are the only thing that made me hold on," said Johansen.
Later, after he was home and word of his tale spread, some elders told him the sea lions had been there to protect him. Johansen said he doesn't know if that's true or not. But he does believe he is lucky to be alive this week. And he also believes it's a good idea to wear a life jacket.
Johansen has received reports that his boat has washed up on shore, and he plans to head out soon and recover it.
This article originally appeared on KDLG radio in Dillingham. It is republished here with permission.?