U.S. Coast Guard suspects foreign registry . . . possibly Russian
The four crew members on board shocked but safe
(Hawaii Ocean News exclusive) (Note to reader: we've updated this article for clarity. Editor)
Pat Senckowski, owner of PurAir Hawaii and skipper and owner of the 35' sports fishing boat, Enticer, was clearly shaken, ". . . at first I thought it was a speed boat . . . it was going so fast -- looked like 30 knots!"
7pm, Saturday evening, November 27th, 2021, just yards from the entrance buoys to the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor in Honolulu, the Enticer was returning from a multiple day fishing expedition with four crew members on board.
"I was coming into the harbor and was just yards from the entrance buoy. I looked to my right and saw two dim lights coming at me, and I thought to myself, 'wow, that guy's going fast'; but initially, I thought the guy saw me and he was going to miss me so I just kept on going. But as he started approaching, the outline of the sub started to become apparent . . . and it dawned on me that we were on a collision course. The sub didn't slow at all. I had to slam the boat into reverse in order to prevent getting cut in half." (Our understanding, he was approaching the very first buoy marking the entrance to the yacht harbor. Editor)
Each of the four crew members witnessed the encounter and claim to have had a good look at the sub. ". . . the thing was huge and when it got closer I knew what it was," said Senckowski, " . . . one of the crew members was giving me the all clear sign to go ahead but I knew there was more [length to the sub] to come . . . I was waiting for the tail fin [dorsal stern fin] to go by so it wouldn't cut us in two. I saw the stern end but there was no tail fin."
Brian, another of Enticer's crew members, confirmed that everyone on board saw the sub and witnessed the encounter, and he and Senckowski later spoke with the U.S. Coast Guard. "After we reported the incident, they called us back several times trying to get more information," Brian said.
During one of the conversations the Coast Guard acknowledged that the sub may very well have been of foreign registry, as there were no U.S. subs in the vicinity at the time and place of the near collision. "They [the Coast Guard] seemed very interested, and we had several calls from them . . . ," said Senckowski.
Brian, a web savvy millennial, did a search on the Web for submarine profiles. "From what I could remember and what I found on the Internet, the profile looked like it might belong to a Russian submarine."
Sound like a sea story to me. Number of things don’t add up. Just yards from Ala Wai and the “sub” is coming from his right (starboard) it is shallow in that area. The boat on his right would have the right of way. Coming back from an overnight fishing trip at 7PM????
Thank you for the feedback. Mr. Senckowski said that they had been out overnight since the day before . . . we’ve edited that. The “entrance” to the Ala Wai that he was referring to was the approach to the first “A” buoy entrance marker to the harbor. For a sub, that would still appear to us to be relatively shallow water, but certainly not if the sub were only partially submerged. We’ve spoken to the crew, the CG seemed unusually interested in the incident, and this would not be the first time that foreign registry military vessels were found to be close in to Hawaii’s coastline, so we, as well as the CG, have reason to believe that the claim was legit. We’ve made some edits to the post for clarity.
Yes we went out fishing on Thanksgiving and spent the night on the west side, then we were coming back the next evening and we were lined up entering the channel when all of the sudden Pat turned and slammed the boat in reverse because he noticed something blocking the city lights so he shined the spotlight and saw the submarine headed West Right on a collision course with us maybe 20 ft from us. he was on the flybridge I was on the main deck in the back of the boat we avoided collision but I watched the submarine (silently with no navigation lights of any kind) pass us turn on the portside maybe 10 ft away from us at that point. My friend who was with us is in the USMC and he also witnessed the whole thing. Pat yelled on the radio what the fuck is this blacked out submarine almost hit us. they did not radio as back they started calling his cell phone over and over, he answered and said he would call them back when we docked the boat. then he did. that is when they asked us what it looked like and he had told them he was worried about the tail fin cutting the boat in half but it didn’t have a tail fin. that is when the Coast guard said it must have been foreign.
Dud you ever do a follow up to this story
Yes. The owner of the fishing boat in question is making himself available to any media outlet that wants more answers. Because there are four solid witnesses who are willing to talk about what they saw, there is little doubt in our minds about the validity of this story. The USCG and Navy have since been mostly mum and won’t talk openly about it to us.