‘From sleeping to swimming, it was about 10 minutes,’ says survivor of fishing boat sinking

A survivor of fatal Alaska crab boat tragedy said the crew went from “sleeping to swimming in about 10 minutes” as rough seas and icing threatened to sink their boat.

“On the 31st we just started listing really hard on the starboard side,” Dean Gribble Jr. said in a YouTube video he said he posted to answer some questions about what happened. “From sleeping to swimming was about 10 minutes. It happened really fast. Everybody was trying to get out. Everybody was doing everything they could and it was just really a (expletive) situation.”

Gribble said they faced 20-foot  seas, 40-mph winds and icy conditions.

“I’ve fished for 20 years, I know that you do not make it,” he said. “Everybody can die in those situations and I knew that’s what we were going into. We were in the raft for about five hours.”

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