‘My boyfriend is stuck on an iceberg’: Fishermen pluck man from frigid Cook Inlet waters

The fishing for Cook Inlet winter king salmon wasn’t great last weekend.

But the charter boat carrying Peder Reiland and his friends still made an impressive catch Saturday — and brought home an only-in-Alaska story that needs no embellishment.

The FV Misty’s quick response to a rescue call may have made the difference between life and death for Jaime Snedden, who ultimately was delivered ashore at the town of Anchor Point, 100 miles southwest of Anchorage on the Kenai Peninsula.

Passengers on the 30-foot fishing boat pulled a hypothermic Snedden aboard about 300 yards offshore, after he spent half an hour in the 38-degree water of Cook Inlet, authorities later said.

Snedden, 45, was clinging to a roughly 5-foot square chunk of ice, after state troopers said the shoreside ice he was walking along broke free and drifted into the Inlet.

Snedden was wearing jeans and a windbreaker — and no life jacket, said Reiland, who was out for a day of fishing on the Misty.

“We assumed we were picking up a body because you don’t pull live people out of the water —especially not in winter time, and especially not that far off,” Reiland, who regularly fishes in the Inlet, said in a phone interview Monday. “It feels like 10 or 15 more minutes and he probably wouldn’t have made it back.”

Troopers praised the efforts of Captain Shane Blakely and the fishermen onboard, saying in a statement Monday that without them, the rescue would have been “much more challenging.”

When the Misty arrived, Trooper Jeremiah Baum was “paddling furiously” toward Snedden in a packraft, but it likely would have been difficult for him to get Snedden into the inflatable or back to shore, Reiland said.

“I would have had my hands full,” Baum said in a brief interview late Monday.

Accounts of Snedden’s rescue suggest the time he spent in the water was harrowing for him and his loved ones.

“I need somebody with a boat to come to (Anchor Point) beach now please — my boyfriend is stuck on a iceberg and going out with the tide. I called 911 — they are taking forever to get here,” said a Saturday morning post, a woman posted in a Facebook forum centered in the neighboring town of Homer.

It’s still not exactly clear how Snedden ended up bobbing so far out in the Inlet; he couldn’t be reached for comment and the woman’s Facebook account didn’t respond to an interview request.

Baum said Snedden and his girlfriend were walking along the shore of the Anchor River, which flows into Cook Inlet. They were collecting coal, which some Kenai Peninsula residents use as a heating source, when a chunk of ice that Snedden was standing on apparently broke free.

The Coast Guard dispatched a helicopter, but it was coming from a base in Kodiak, more than 100 miles away. Authorities also put out an “urgent marine information broadcast,” according to troopers.

The Misty, which started its day in Homer, was some 4 miles away, and it took Blakely, the captain, eight minutes to get to Snedden going “full throttle,” Reiland said.

The boat was carrying Blakely, a deckhand, Reiland and four of his friends — including, fortuitously, a physician assistant and a respiratory therapist.

Snedden, when they arrived, had for some reason kicked off his shoes; they were floating next to him in the water, Reiland said. Snedden was conscious but didn’t seem to notice the 30-foot fishing boat bearing down on him.

“He’s not in a good way, but he was stammering out words,” Reiland said. Once on board, Reiland added, Snedden “was full shakes and chattering — but he was also conscious.”

Reiland stayed out of the way in the Misty’s cabin as Snedden was pulled aboard and inside.

After changing into dry clothes, Snedden was loaded onto a raft with Baum, the trooper, who paddled him ashore to emergency responders. They took Snedden to the Homer hospital where he was treated for hypothermia “and is expected to fully recover,” troopers said.

Once Snedden was offloaded, Reiland and his friends on the Misty went back to fishing. After losing one king salmon in the morning, they landed a 13-pounder in the afternoon.

Reiland said the vessel and its captain had already been the recipient of a number of appreciative social media posts.

But, he added: “I would hope the Coasties or somebody gives him a plaque, or a six-pack of beer.”

ADN reporter Alena Naiden contributed reporting.