Wow! Any barge traffic in that area? The simplest explanation would be to say that he was hit by a freighter or barge. Possibly the people he heard were the crew of the other vessel investigating who saw the locked cabin door and assumed no one was on board. That would assume that he could not call out or was not strong enough to be heard over other noise.

A tragedy for sure but I hate to jump to the conclusion that it was an intentional crime.

There's barge (actually freighter) traffic from San Fran to Stockton on the Sacramento buy I don't think there's any on the American. Maybe SNUPY or etypo know for sure.

I think it said they found the boat anchored in the Sacramento. They said that was weird because usually boats anchored in the American like you say. So if it was in the Sacramento and he was asleep it could have run afoul of a freighter, but why would he purposely anchor there? His anchor may have slipped though??? Maybe??? It is horrible enough as an accident, to think it could be purposeful foul play is horrendous.

I am not really to familiar with that area. I have been up the sac river but not that far. We really don't have a lot of barge traffic ( unlike FWL!). I have a hard time believing it was a freighter. I believe that any freighter has to hire a local captain to pilot the vessel before it enters the bay. I will keep my assumptions to myself but.....

I also find it strange he was anchored in the middle of the river, but as FWL commented might have drifted.

Here is a link to an explosion that happened a Bullfrog Marina a few days ago. This place I am familiar with, have passed by many times.

explosion

What kind of a-hole motors right next to a burning boat? he was within 10' of the thing and his wake pushed it closer to the fuel dock. People are so stupid and selfish.

Those were the kind of people I was basing my assumption on in my previous post.

I don't think there is any commercial traffic to the
Port of Sacramento these days. If there is, it would go up the ship channel that dead ends at the port rather than the Sac River itself, so that probably isn't the cause.

I saw that video of the boat fire. Scary stuff. The owner of Bullfrog lives down the street from me (so I've heard - I've never had a chance to speak with him directly). I'll have to ask him about it if I get a chance.