Friday, March 14, 2008

Friends of missing man hold out hope

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

Friends of Edwin Platt, who was last seen Thursday by his fiancée swimming the waters off Loon Point attempting to save his beloved boat “Sassy Traveler,” gathered last night at the Cliff Room to celebrate the man they call “Skip.”
A fisherman by trade, Platt was described as having a heart bigger than most, and who lived to bring smiles to the faces of the people around him.
“He is a man who loved his life,” said Jeanette Gardner, who met Platt three years ago when she joined the local chapter of the Hash House Harriers, which she said is drinking group with a running problem. “He loves his fiancée, he loves his boat and he loves the Hash House Harriers.”


Platt went missing on Thursday evening, when he took off his clothes, plunged into the cold Pacific near Summerland and attempted to swim to his boat, which had broke loose from its anchorage near East Beach and was threatening to wash ashore.
According to a Carpinteria firefighter, Platt’s fiancée lost sight of him after he ventured about 45-yards from shore.
The “Sassy Traveler” crashed onto the beach a little while later just north of Loon Point.
Rescue crews from the U.S. Coast Guard and a handful of local fire departments searched into the night Thursday, but the operation was turned over to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department yesterday and dubbed a “rescue and recovery” effort.
As the hours pass, the likelihood that Platt is found alive diminishes, but Gardner said she and others who knew the man remain hopeful.
So they gathered at his preferred bar, the dimly lit Cliff Room, which is near Platt’s home on the Mesa, to order a few rounds of his favorite beer, Heineken.
Gardner recalled Platt’s 50th birthday party last December, which was held at the Cliff Room, where a packed house arrived to usher the man they knew and loved into the next stage of his life.
“He lived to bring good news and be the one to make people laugh,” she said.
Gardner said Platt was a member of the Hash House Harriers’ board of directors and was often responsible for getting his fellow hashers motivated by singing songs.
She said Platt worked with a number of commercial fishing operations in the area and was talking about heading to Alaska for work when crab season arrived.
According to Gardner, Platt grew up on the east coast, possibly in Connecticut where a number of his family continues to reside. She said he has a daughter who lives in Bakersfield.
Due to the laborious nature of fishing and life on the water, Gardner said Platt is in excellent shape, has excellent biceps and “hardly and ounce of fat on him.”
Which is why it’s hard for many to understand how their friend “Skip” could be missing in the same sea he loved so much.
“It was his home away from home,” Gardner said. “It was his place.
“The fact that he dove into the ocean without his clothes on in the late afternoon to get his boat is a little questionable for us, but on the other hand, he knew his boat, he knew the ocean and he knew his abilities.”

3 comments:

Auggie said...

Sorry to lose you, dude, but the boat just wasn't worth it. The ocean is a strange being, giving and taking.

Sooz58 said...

No kidding! We prayed it wasn't true but his daughter & I knew the truth would soon be revealed. Read more about his services and the Lindsey Platt Trust Fund by visiting our ezine which we here at JerSooz.com have commemorated to our new Angel watching over us, "Skip". The URL is http://www.jersooz.com/ezine Or you can go to my weblog and see more links by visiting,http://seattlegirlmakesgood.wordpress.com/2008/03/20/edwin-platt-missing-at-sea-trust-fund-set-up-for-daughter-lindsey-platt/

Sooz58 said...

Just a note, a few of us are planning to get together on March 14th 2009 to show our love for Skip. It is to be tentatively held at Shoreline around 11 AM like last year except a few things will be different:
The Shoreline Memorial 2008 was overshadowed last year by the fundraiser SOS to keep fishermen & women from losing more boat owners. Even though this is a good cause we would like this time to solely show our appreciation for our loved one, Skip, or Edwin G Platt Jr. who moved on without us a year ago. This will be HIS time, not the SOS crusade. Please respect our wishes. Thank you ahead of time. sooz
p.s.
write me an email or call if you know my number seattlegirlmakesgood@gmail.com subject=Shoreline_Reunion.