NEWPORT -- On the day the Mary B II capsized, crew member Joshua Porter talked and texted throughout the crabbing expedition with his wife waiting at home. One of his texts came after dark: “I’m scared. It’s real big out here. I am putting my life jacket on."

The weather had been forecast to turn rough and Porter went out only because the captain agreed to return to port by 4 p.m. at the latest. But the skipper changed his mind.

Later as the Mary B II motored toward the Yaquina Bay bar, Porter texted his wife that they were 20 minutes from the tips of the jetties and the Coast Guard was on its way.

He invited her to come watch them cross as she often did.

Denise Porter arrived at the South Jetty shortly before 10 p.m. The Coast Guard had spotlights on the bar and was lighting flares.

“I saw the helicopter,” Denise Porter said, sobbing Wednesday as she testified during the third day of the Coast Guard’s inquiry into the capsizing.

“That’s when I knew something bad had happened,” she said. “I knew I’d never talk to him again.”

The Mary B II went down on Jan. 8 when seas were breaking at 12 to 14 feet with an occasional 16-foot swell. Joshua Porter, 50, of Toledo; the captain, Stephen Biernacki, 48, of New Jersey; and a second crew member, James Lacey, 49, of New Jersey all died when a wave swamped the vessel.

The Coast Guard plans to wrap up its investigation Friday and will release its findings later.

Joshua Porter had been part of the crew for less than 10 days and planned to start a new job on a different boat the next day. His relationship with Biernacki had been uneasy from the start, his wife said.

The two met outside their adjoining storage units at the end of December. Joshua Porter was looking for a job and Biernacki needed a crewman. But Porter soon regretted the decision to join the crew, staying on only because he had made a commitment and he needed the money, Denise Porter said.

The first day they set crab pots, Joshua Porter told her, she said: “I don’t know what’s wrong with this guy. He didn’t even check the tide.”

His wife asked if he’d said anything to Biernacki.

“He said, ‘I did, but he won’t listen,’” she recounted.

On that same trip, Joshua Porter texted her, “We ran aground, barely got off. stuck for 10 minutes loaded with pots and the tide going out…”

He also mentioned there was leak in the boat that Biernacki was trying to fix. That night, he told her: “I am so embarrassed. They set all the gear wrong … the buoys were backwards,” Denise Porter said.

Another day, Joshua Porter, who had been sober for 11 ½ years, showed up for work, expecting to head out for crab at 4:30 a.m. He later told his wife that Biernacki made the crew wait until 6 a.m. when he could buy beer for the trip, she said.

On the night of the capsizing, she said Joshua Porter told her in a phone conversation: “This guy doesn’t keep his radio on. The Coast Guard couldn’t get ahold of us.”

Her husband was mad, she said. Later, he texted her that Biernacki and Lacey were angry with him. “I told them there is a reason nobody is out here,” he texted.

A short time later, Denise Porter drove to the South Jetty, parked the truck, and, as she had so many times before, stood on the dunes to watch her husband’s boat cross the bar.

The Coast Guard spotlights illuminated the night. She knew from experience that she should have seen the Mary B II’s lights by then.

She texted him, “Are you through now?”

She never heard back.

-- Lori Tobias

For The Oregonian/OregonLive