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SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF FLORENCE • DUNES CITY • WESTLAKE • MAPLETON • SWISSHOME • DEADWOOD • YACHATS AND ALL POINTS BETWEEN
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HONORING ONE OF THEIR OWN
Florence Police participate in memorial for Coos County Deputy Gil Datan
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
Datan, 43, was killed in
the line of duty on April 20 in
an ATV accident while
This past Sunday, April patrolling timber lands near
24, members of the Florence Coos Bay. He had been a
Police Department (FPD) member of the Confederated
attended the Celebration of Tribal Police and worked
Life for Deputy Gil Datan of side by side with members of
the Coos County Sheriff’s the FPD during his time with
Office.
the tribes.
Datan served
Community members watch the
with the Coos
procession of police vehicles hon- County Sheriff’s
oring Datan, who died last week
Office for five
while patrolling timber land.
years and was in
Siuslaw News
Police Lt. John Pitcher.
Several fire agencies also
attended the service, includ-
ing members of Siuslaw
Valley Fire and Rescue.
An impressive procession
of hundreds of police and fire
vehicles, mounted troopers
and motorcycle officers led
the way through Coos Bay
and North Bend and ended at
North Bend High School for
the memorial.
See
POLICE 11A
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
PHOTOS COURTESY OF JOHN PITCHER
law enforcement for 19
years. He had only held his
post as a timber deputy for
two months.
Datan is survived by his
girlfriend and his teenaged
daughter.
The Celebration of Life
was attended by numerous
police agencies across the
state, with representatives
from
Washington
and
California present as well.
“It was an honor for us to
participate,” said Florence
Ready
to go
‘green’?
Exhibits, youth activities
and more Saturday during
6th annual Green Fair
COURTESY PHOTO
Dozens of fair exhibitors, including
Laurel Bay Gardens, will offer advice
on “living green.”
Discover all things “green” at the
sixth annual Florence Green Fair on
Saturday, May 2, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.,
at the Florence Events Center, 715
Quince St.
Presented by Siuslaw News and
KCST Radio, this year’s fair has part-
nered with area educators and vendors
for a day of fun for all ages, including
visual displays, homegrown flavors,
hands-on crafts for children and music
featuring Marty Adams.
Look inside today’s newspaper for a
special program detailing Green Fair
activities and exhibitor information.
A new addition to the Green Fair is
the Kid Zone, featuring interactive craft
projects and a planting station. The first
100 youth to attend the fair will receive
a super-recycler cape.
Also on hand is the Repair 2 Reuse
café, which will repair items for free, as
well as the fair’s premier sponsor,
Laurel Bay Gardens, offering organic
gardening soils and products.
Admission to the Florence Green Fair
is $2 for adults and free for all children
accompanied by an adult. However,
anyone who brings a used plastic planter
pot to be recycled will receive free
admission.
Police
Scoreboard
Sports
Tides
Weather
Laurent Patureau and Florence Darceot, French citizens, stop in Florence after their Tahitian-bound catamaran was damaged offshore.
IMPROMPTU VISIT
After open-water accident, couple must navigate through sea of red tape
B Y J ACK D AVIS
Siuslaw News
I
magine a sailor’s dream.
Under sail, coasting through
crystalline blue waters 30
miles off shore on a 58-foot
catamaran heading south from
Vancouver, B.C., along the Oregon
coast. Final destination: the French
Polynesian island of Huahine.
Next, imagine a sailor’s worst nightmare, ram-
ming into an unseen underwater obstruction.
The force of the impact toppled the boat’s 80-
foot mast, taking the boom, mainsail and genoa
over the catamaran’s starboard railing and into
Your
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Classifieds
B7
In Brief
A5
Library Tidings A5
Opinion
A4
PHOTO BY JACK DAVIS/SIUSLAW NEWS
A2
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B1
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the sea. The standing rigging was the only thing
holding the tangled wreckage to the boat. The
aluminum mast was broken in two places.
Captain Laurent Patureau and his partner,
Florence Darceot, French citizens who operate a
charter boat company in Huahine, had just pur-
chased the catamaran Twin Image from a New
Zealander in Vancouver, B.C.
“We signed the bill of sale on March 15 and
left Vancouver March 16,” Patureau said.
Five days later everything changed.
“It was 7 a.m., small wind, small waves, every-
thing was calm,” he continued. “What ever we hit
was just under the surface. We had no chance.”
Patureau believes it was either a submerged
container lost overboard from a container ship, or
possibly some debris from the 2011 Japanese
tsunami.
The 28-year-old catamaran’s hull and keel
were solidly constructed of fiberglass reinforced
Weather
T ODAY
T HURSDAY
F RIDAY
S ATURDAY
Clouds
& Sun
58
43
Sunny
Partly
Sunny
61
45
Sunny
60
45
61
45
Sports—B
with carbon fiber and did not appear to have suf-
fered any significant damage. The boat was not
taking on water. But being dismasted, out of sight
of land, can be unnerving.
“I asked my crew to not launch a distress sig-
nal, because we were not in a distress position,”
Patureau said. “We just lost a mast. But one of
the crew became panicked and sent the signal.”
The boat was outside of Oregon’s three-mile
territorial boundries, but well within the U.S. ter-
ritorial limit of 200 miles and the jurisdiction of
the U.S. Coast Guard. Minutes after the distress
signal went out, a Coast Guard helicopter from
Newport was hovering overhead.
“We received the Mayday call at 8 a.m. and
launched the Motor Lifeboat (MLB) right away,”
said James Greenlief, Station Siuslaw River sen-
ior chief boatswain’s mate and officer-in-charge.
See
BOAT 11A