Community and Officials Call for Safety Review
Vigil organizer Summer Guo, a friend of the captain, recounted exchanging text messages with Chen on the morning of the disaster.
"One of the victims is my friend, the captain; he’s a really good guy and he’s built up a lot of relationships in my fishing group chat and we really miss him," Summer Guo said.
Guo explained that the group had intentionally delayed their departure due to adverse weather conditions in the area.
"We really miss him and we want to find out what’s going on, what happened, and we want to send our prayers and hope he could come home," Guo said.
Guo emphasized that Chen was highly respected within the local recreational fishing community.
"They were actually waiting for the wind to kind of slow down a little bit, for the waves to chill out a little.
So yeah, it’s safer to go out, right?" Guo added.
Guo concluded his thoughts by expressing how deeply the young captain would be missed by his friends.
"He’s just a really good guy. I really miss him."
Former coworker Bob Zhang attended the vigil and revealed that a side door on the 30-foot aluminum KingFisher vessel had malfunctioned during a previous trip in May, an issue Lee reported had also caused flooding two days before the sinking.
"We got lucky we didn’t get so many waves and winds that day," said Zhang.
Conservative MP Chak Au, whose son participated in the search and rescue operation, addressed the mourning crowd and pledged a $5,000 donation to Chen's family.
