Nearly two dozen passengers aboard a boat near Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay were rescued when the vessel started sinking Friday night, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
The 22 passengers and crew aboard the Neptune, a 45-foot boat, were safely rescued after the boat struck a shoal near the north side of Alcatraz and started taking on water, according to the USCG.
The Coast Guard received a report at 8:42 p.m. that the Neptune had struck an object and had a 1-foot gash on its side.
All the passengers, who were enjoying a bachelor party on what's billed as San Francisco Bay's only "floating wine tasting room," according to the Associated Press, were taken onto rescue boats and brought to Pier 39 in San Francisco after Coast Guard and San Francisco police and fire crews responded to the sinking boat.
"We were only in the boat for maybe about 20 minutes or so," Matthew Rice, the party's guest of honor, told KGO-TV. "We were coming around Alcatraz checking it out and all of a sudden it was like boom, just like a big jolt and the next thing we knew the Coast Guard boats came in and got us off."
The Neptune is a 1958 motor vessel operated by San Francisco Bay Boat Cruises LLC, which offers "specialty voyages" on San Francisco Bay, according to the company's website.
The damaged boat was towed to a Sausalito boat shop for repairs.
The cause of the incident is under investigation.
There were no reported injuries or pollution problems after the rescue, according to the USCG.
--Bay City News Service
