Coast Guard Suspends Search
Monday, March 12 2012
The Coast Guard suspended its search on Friday for a crew member from the fishing vessel Glacier Spirit. The as-yet unidentified man fell overboard on Friday morning. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game notified the Coast Guard, who then launched a Dolphin helicopter and a C-130 aircraft to search for the crewmember.
Petty Officer Jonathan Lally says the Coast Guard Command Center in Juneau made the decision to call off the search after six hours. He says the search team covered an area of more than 40 square miles, taking into account tides and currents. Lally could not say whether the man was wearing survival gear when he went overboard.
According to the state vessel registry, the 42-foot Glacier Spirit belongs to Richard Eastlick of Sand Point.
Harold McBroom on Tuesday, July 17 2012:
My experience with Rick Eastlick, a more indepth look.
I was in Sand Point, Ak for about 3 months, I was staying with an aleut woman named Andrea, who later died of cancer, Andrea Karlson, or something like that, girlfriend of Shawn Hill, a friend of mine as well. I couldn't find a job in town, but the day I came into Sand Point, I met Rick Eastlick on his way out of Sand Point. A Month later when he came back in town, I hooked up with him, and did odd jobs around his house, and on the boat, the Glacier Spirit, I moved out of Andrea's house, and onto the boat, where Rick let me stay for about a month and a half by myself. We were preparing for a fishing trip so we had to get the boat ready, it needed a lot of work. Later on Damien arrived, and we went out on a fishing trip, supposed to go Cod fishing but he changed his mind, and we rigged the boat for halibut fishing instead. Rick said, "I would like to see you go back to Dallas with at least $5,000 bucks in your pocket, but I did one trip, and he didn't want to invest the money into me, for a fishing license, so he gave me 100 bucks, and my friend Shawn Hill used his flyer miles to get me back to Dallas. I didn't get paid hardly anything for all that work, which was worth at least $300 bucks. I was a greenhorn, and I remember an incident where he gave me and Damien a knife each, and said if we get hung up on the line, to cut the line, I got hung up of course, and had it not been for my quick reflexes in yanking the line, would have ended up overboard as well. Against his orders, I did not cut the line, because that would have cost us the trip. Rick had psirossis in the hand, I can't spell the word, so I did a lot of the work his hands were unable to do. So I knew Rick Eastlick very well.
Harold McBroom on Tuesday, July 17 2012:
Very sorry to hear that! I'm a friend of Damien, a korean I met while I was in Sand Point, Ak, and I did a fishing run with them. I was staying doing odd jobs for Rick around the house, and on the boat, preparing it for our run, we were supposed to go cod fishing, but ended up going Halibut fishing, we used a long line. My job was to hit the fish with a hammer, then bled it, I was a greenhorn, but Damien knew what he was doing, and was quite a veteran, it was an honor to work with him. I remember I freaked my mom out, when I called and said Rick was taking out an insurance policy, and my life was worth more dead than alive, and they freaked out, who knows, maybe thats what kept me alive. The crewmate before me went overboard as well, seems Rick has a habit of hiring people who go overboard, but at least he lived. harold5187@hotmail.com I'm now living in Dallas tx, and will never step foot on a boat again in my life for the sake of killing a fish.