Last weekend, a large wind storm drove the fishing vessel Chaos aground just outside Unalaska. Rough weather delayed a Coast Guard air rescue of the boat’s crew. As KUCB's Lauren Rosenthal reports, it might keep salvagers away, too.

The Chaos is a 54-foot longliner based out of Homer. Its four crew members were trying to make it back to town Friday night before a heavy storm struck.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Sara Mooers says they didn’t make it – the wind and rain started early. So the crew sought shelter in a small cove in Unalaska Bay.

"They were at anchor and the high winds actually broke their anchor [line] and pushed them ashore," Mooers says. "They contacted the harbormaster who then contacted us."

The Coast Guard sent an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter from their forward base in Cold Bay, along with an MH-60 Jayhawk from Kodiak. The pilots tried to pick up the Chaos crew right away, but Mooers says the weather was too rough.

"Due to the high winds, they weren’t able to conduct any hoists to rescue the crew," Mooers says. "But they were able to make contact with them and establish that they were reasonably safe [and] that the vessel was intact and up on the rocks."

Mooers says the Coast Guard asked the fishermen to stay put and wait for calmer weather. But around midnight, the winds were rocking the vessel so violently that they thought it might flip over.

The fishermen tried to swim to shore and spend the night on land. Once they got there, they found that the beach was being pelted by rocks that were blowing off the cliffs overhead.

So they swam back to the boat and waited. By Saturday morning, the weather had calmed down. Mooers says an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter flew back out to the bay.

"The [MH-60] conducted the hoists of the four mariners aboard and brought them back to Dutch Harbor," she says.

There were no reports of injuries among the crew members, but an emergency medical team met them at the airport to perform checkups.Now that the crew is safe, the Coast Guard’s turning their attention to the stranded vessel. The Chaos is still on the rocks in Unalaska Bay.

Unalaska's Coast Guard marine safety detachment is monitoring it for signs of a spill. The vessel’s only holding between 50 and 100 gallons of fuel. So far, none of that has leaked.

Lieutenant Mark Labert says the owner and master of the Chaos have been working on a salvage plan. But it doesn’t look like they’ll be able to get the boat back before the next big windstorm hits Unalaska.

The National Weather Service is forecasting winds of up to 85 miles per hour starting Tuesday afternoon. That’s even stronger than the storm that sent the Chaos aground in the first place.