By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews

The Empress is off the beach – and in Toledo for inspection and repairs.

Crews from Coastal Towing & Salvage of Ilwaco, Wash. used an excavator, crane and special trailer Saturday to get the 41-foot, 16-ton cabin cruiser off the beach at Lost Creek state recreation site seven miles south of Newport.

Getting plucked from the sand ends the first part of a week-long ordeal for Stacey Stenerson and Quiante Swearingen, who were living on the boat when it was stolen July 14 from South Beach Marina and then beached hours later. The two spent the last seven days in the Lost Creek parking lot overlooking the beach and protecting their home from the crooks and the curious.

 

Recovery crews used a steep access road Saturday morning to get their equipment onto the beach, dug under the boat to place straps, removed the top cabin, and then lifted her gently onto the trailer. From there it was back up the hill, onto a closed U.S. Highway 101, and off to the Port of Toledo.

“Overall, it looks like she’s in pretty good shape,” Stenerson said after the Empress was on her way.

The two propellers are damaged, she said, but the propeller shafts may be OK.

The operation was overseen by staff from Oregon State Parks and Oregon State Police, who closed the recreation site’s parking lot. The curious parked cars up and down the highway and lined the cliff to get a look at the operation.

The recovery went off without a hitch – and well before high tide at 4:40 p.m.

 

The “Empress” had been Stenerson and Swearingen’s home since October when they bought it in Warrenton, spent a month in Garbaldi and then sailed to Newport.

Mark D. Newens, 34, of Lebanon is accused of stealing it from South Beach Marina, motoring out Yaquina Bay and then running it aground on the beach about 8:30 p.m. July 14. He was arrested after he waded ashore and is in the Lincoln County jail awaiting a court appearance Monday.

That was only the start. While they left the site early last Saturday to run to Florence to get their recreational vehicle, one or two people got aboard and stole a lot of their and Swearingen’s three childrens’ most valuable belongings.

But that wasn’t the last insult.

The couple took their remaining possessions and moved them to their RV, which they moved to the Lost Creek lot from where it had been parked in Florence. While they were on the beach Monday getting the boat turned around during high tide, someone broke into the RV and took more belongings.

Stenerson estimates between the two thefts they’ve lost $20,000 – in addition to whatever damage was done to the boat.

“I don’t know what my thoughts are,” an exhausted Stenerson said Saturday after the boat was on its way. “The number of good people far outweigh he bad, but the bad leave a much deeper mark.”

Swearingen followed the recovery crews to Toledo to get a look at the boat. Once he returns Saturday Swearingen said they just want to find a place to park the RV, clean up and begin their own recovery.

“We don’t have a destination,” she said. “We just know we want to leave here. But after that, our next goal is to get her back in the water.”

 

 

Thursday, July 20 story below here:

 

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews

Stacey Stenerson and Quiante Swearingen have spent the last six days in a parking lot high above their beached cabin cruiser guarding it from looters and the overly curious.

“It’s what we do. We sit here and watch her,” Stenerson said Wednesday, leaning on a railing at Lost Creek recreation site seven miles south of Newport.

They hope their vigil ends Saturday when a towing and salvage company from Ilwaco, Wash. tries to remove the 32,000-pound craft.

“Every day is like ‘Is today the day? Is today the day?’ ” Stenerson said. “We’re hoping by the end of Saturday we’re gone.”

It’s been an awful six days for Stenerson and Swearingen.

The 41-foot double-cabin “Empress” has been Stenerson and Swearingen’s home since October but has been stuck on the beach at Lost Creek state recreation area since last Friday.

Mark D. Newens, 34, of Lebanon is accused of stealing it from South Beach Marina, motoring out Yaquina Bay and then running it aground on the beach about 8:30 p.m. Friday, July 14. He was arrested after he waded ashore and is in the Lincoln County jail awaiting a court appearance Monday.

But that wasn’t their only affront. While they left the site early last Saturday to run to Florence to get their recreational vehicle, one or two people got aboard and stole a lot of their and Swearingen’s three childrens’ most valuable belongings.

Now the boat is mostly cleaned out of their possessions and fuel and water taken off to lighten the load and prevent leaks. The boat is not visibly damaged and is not leaking fuel or water onto the beach.

The couple’s insurance company hired Coastal Towing & Salvage of Ilwaco to attempt to haul it off the beach Saturday using a crane, excavator and special trailer.

Oregon State Parks personnel and state police will close the parking lot at Lost Creek for the day Saturday while the salvage company attempts to remove the boat. They plan to reach the boat via an emergency access road just south of the recreation site.

Dylan Anderson, state parks manager for the area, said he talked with the salvage company owner Thursday who was confident they could get it off the beach.

“They’ve taken larger boats off the beach before,” Anderson said.

The process is expected to take all of Saturday; high tide is at 4:40 p.m.

Newens “nonsensical”

Newens, who has a criminal record dating back to 2011 and spent three months this spring undergoing a psychiatric evaluation at the Oregon State Hospital, is in the Lincoln County jail on charges of disorderly conduct, burglary, theft, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and being a fugitive from another state.

Court records indicate he “would not participate” in his initial court hearing Tuesday. His next appearance is scheduled Monday.

Newens was grabbed by paramedics when he was on the beach Friday night.

Oregon State Police Trooper Cameron Nathman said in a probable cause affidavit filed in Lincoln County circuit court, that Newens admitted to stealing the boat, that he had eaten marijuana while on board, got sick and drove the boat onto the beach.

Nathman’s affidavit said Newens made “nonsensical statements about how he came to be on the boat” but “did confirm the boat was not his.”

If it can get the Empress off the beach, Stenerson said the salvage company plans to take it to the dry dock in Toledo for inspection. The boat has twin diesel engines and two direct-drive propellers, one of which appears to be damaged, Stenerson said.

Despite the double thefts and their week from hell, Stenerson said the community “has been very, very supportive.” A friend brings food, a woman brings water for their two dogs, and a perfect stranger even started a GoFund Me campaign to help with finances.

“There’s been some very kind gestures which we very much appreciate … but the bad people leave a different mark on us,” she said. “We’re just hoping by Sunday we’re gone. We want to move on.”

• Quinton Smith is the editor of YachatsNews.com and can be reached at YachatsNews@gmail.com

 

 

Previous story below here:

Their 41-foot home was stolen from a Newport marina Friday and now they’re trying to get it off the beach — and find their belongings

 

 

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews

A Lebanon man stole Stacy Stenerson and Quiante Swearingen’s home Friday night and now they’re trying to get it off the beach seven miles south of Newport.

The couple and his three children live aboard the 41-foot cabin cruiser Empress – until 34-year-old Mark D. Newens took off in it Friday from the South Beach Marina in Newport while the family was in Eugene.

By 8:30 p.m. Friday the boat was beached below the Lost Creek state recreation area south of Newport. But that wasn’t the last of the couple’s troubles.

Emergency responders took Newens into custody after he jumped off the boat and swam ashore when it went aground. The U.S. Coast Guard said in its report that Newens was in “an altered state of consciousness.”

Newens, who has a criminal record dating back to 2011 and spent three months this spring undergoing a psychiatric evaluation at the Oregon State Hospital, is in the Lincoln County jail on charges of disorderly conduct, burglary, theft, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and being a fugitive from another state.

Stenerson and Swearingen spent Saturday securing their vessel and Sunday unloading and lightening it before attempting to turn it around and pointed out to the ocean during high tide at midnight Sunday. Once they hear from their insurance company – hopefully Monday – they’ll contact boating experts to see how they might be able to get it off the beach.

Stenerson said she and Swearingen also realize that rescuing their home may not be possible.

The Coast Guard said the boat was not damaged and was not leaking any fuels onto the beach.

The vessel’s homeport is in Florence, where Stenerson has lived for 30 years and the two have a vacation rental cleaning business.

Stenerson said in an interview Sunday with YachatsNews that she and Swearingen purchased the 1969 Hatteras cabin cruiser last October in Warrenton, spent a month in Garibaldi and have been in Newport since early December.

“Florence was our next stop,” Stenerson said. “It was a dream come true for us. We love it.”

Aground at 8:30 Friday

A Coast Guard public affairs official in Seattle said Sunday that its Yaquina Bay station was first notified of the beached boat about 8:30 p.m. Friday. It had a ground crew respond to the Lost Creek recreation site and was soon joined by Newport fire and medical personnel.

The Coast Guard said Newens waded ashore as the boat hit the sand. The Coast Guard said its personnel searched the water around the area Friday night for other people who may have been on the boat until Newens told Oregon State Police that he alone took the boat from its moorage, headed to sea and then fell asleep south of Newport.

Newens has a criminal history dating back to 2011 and as recent as 2022 for everything from criminal mischief, assault and aggravated harassment, according to court records from Linn County. He was sentenced to one year in jail in February 2020 and then spent three months at the state hospital this spring to determine if he was fit to stand trial for second-degree assault and prison riot charges from Washington state. He was determined fit for trial June 8, but Washington dropped its proceedings with Newens’ agreement he would not fight extradition if the charges were re-filed, according to court records.

How did he take it?

The Coast Guard and Stenerson said they had no idea how Newens managed to start the massive boat, leave the marina and navigate out Yaquina Bay. The boat is complicated to start and operate, Stenerson said, including dual controls for both engines. Water and electrical hookups at South Beach Marina were ripped off when Newens left, she said.

“You could see that he did not have a clue,” Stenerson said. “Yet he got across the bar.”

Controls for the engines were in reverse when the Swearingen finally boarded it about 1 a.m. Saturday, she said, and there appeared to be a crab pot rope caught in one of the propellers. Then high tide forced them away.

But there was more bad news for the family.

They left about 3 a.m. Saturday to go to Florence to get their motor home, Stenerson said. By the time they returned at 10 a.m. someone – Stenerson says there are reports it was two people – climbed aboard and took many of their personal belongings, including scuba and diving gear, a laptop, electric scooter, gaming systems and a virtual reality headset.

“It was really heartbreaking,” Stenerson told YachatsNews. “That, and the fact that they took things that belonged to the kids.”

They later recovered a child’s dirt bike hidden in brush below the recreation site.

“Everything we have was on her,” Stenerson said Saturday in a Facebook post to the Newport/South Beach Facebook page. “We have made a list of the things taken that we noticed in the five minutes that we boarded her this morning before the tide was too high. How sad and pathetic are these people to steal from a six, nine and eleven year old. If you see any of the below items please contact the state police and reference case number SP 23216317.”