DILLINGHAM -- Three boaters whose engine went out spent a night drifting in Nushagak Bay before being rescued uninjured, according to Alaska State Troopers.

The owner of the 17-foot skiff, Sam Fletcher, 76, told troopers after his rescue that the engine broke down on Monday afternoon and the boat drifted down the Wood River, into Nushagak Bay. They spent the night floating in the bay until the rising tide pushed them up the Nushagak River and they washed ashore at Lewis Point Tuesday morning.

Troopers say they first got the report of the overdue boaters about 10 p.m. Monday, when a caller reported that Fletcher, Clara Miller, 65, and Bernard McCarr, 27, all of Aleknagik, went down the Wood River to pick berries about 1 p.m. and hadn't returned. They were unprepared to spend the night and had no radio or signal equipment, troopers said.

Searchers headed out Tuesday morning but found no sign of them. Just before 11 a.m., an air taxi pilot reported seeing a skiff washed up on the mud flats near Lewis Point and three people waving. Troopers from Dillingham flew out and dropped a radio to the people, who confirmed they were the missing party.

Because of the tide, troopers could not get a boat to them until the evening. At 5:30 p.m., troopers reached the group about 20 miles east of Dillingham and arrived back in the hub city later that night.

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