A body found on the beach near Picnic Point County Park Wednesday evening is probably a missing 45-year-old Marysville man who reportedly fell off a sailboat, according to a Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office report.
A 41-year-old Marysville man, who had been mooring his boat at the Port of Kings
ton Marina, told officials his friend had fallen into the water late Tuesday night after drinking too much.
The two had left Kingston Tuesday afternoon to travel to Edmonds to pick up some propane. When the walk proved too far, the two bought beer instead.
The pair left Edmonds and headed south toward Blake Island, west of Seattle. Between 10 and 11 p.m. the man said his friend, who he described as “like a brother,” was standing on the ladder on the stern, preparing to start the engine. “He gave it a good pull” and fell backward in the water, the man reported.
The boat was about 200 yards from shore. The man grabbed a flashlight and a flotation device and motored around the area for 15 to 20 minutes. He said his friend never surfaced.
The boat had no radio and the man said his phone wasn’t working. The boat did have flares, but they weren’t fired. He told a deputy later, “Who am I going to fire them off for?”
He returned to Kingston between 2 and 2:30 a.m. Later, he told officials, “I cried and drank some beer.”
Around 5 p.m. Wednesday, the man told the harbor master in Kingston what happened.
The man told a sheriff’s deputy he didn’t report the matter sooner because “it didn’t seem real.” Accidents like this happened to other people and he wasn’t prepared to respond, he said.
A train conductor reported seeing the body Wednesday evening southwest of Mukilteo.
In the report, a deputy said jewelry and identifying marks on the body appeared to match the man who disappeared.
Debra Smith: 425-339-3197; dsmith@heraldnet.com.
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