Christopher Eric Haugen

appeared Nov. 14, 2006, by Dania Akkad

Quarter Deck Marine Supply employee Robert Lewis wipes tears from his eyes while talking about his friend Chris Haugen at the Monterey Harbor on Monday. Haugen is believed to be missing at sea.

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Dida Kutz wasn't happy her boyfriend, Chris Haugen, was going out on the rough water.

He planned to take his employer's boat, named Lorraine, from Monterey Harbor and into the windy, dark Saturday afternoon for a sail.

It made Kutz uncomfortable: A small craft advisory warning had been issued. But Kutz knew her boyfriend was a good sailor and he was going to be fine, but she still wanted to meet him when he pulled back in to the dock.

She caught a bus from Marina, where the couple lived, to the harbor. She was walking down the boardwalk at twilight when her cell phone rang.

The voice at the other end tried to sound reassuring: "Don't be alarmed," said the sailboat's owner. "The boat was found empty."

Late Saturday, the Coast Guard found the Lorraine running in circles about a quarter-mile from the breakwater. Her boyfriend was nowhere to be found.

A Coast Guard search for Haugen was called off Sunday afternoon. Since then, the agency has referred all inquiries about the incident to the Monterey Police Department.

Monterey Police Lt. Phil Penko said he didn't know why the Coast Guard had called off its search. His department is treating Haugen as a missing person and is still exploring all possible angles, trying to piece together what happened.

"We have to be suspicious. We can't take anything for granted," Penko said. "Maybe we're trying to be optimistic, too."

It is a distinct possibility that Haugen is lost at sea, but anything is possible, he said.

"We've got the event and now we have to go backwards," Penko added.

During an interview Monday, Kutz said she first met Haugen about a year ago at Bruce Delgado's home in Marina.

Delgado threw the party to thank people who had volunteered at a picnic for local conservation groups, including the Chuck Haugen Conservation Fund, named after Chris Haugen's uncle. The Haugen fund was created to unite local conservationists.

Chuck Haugen died in July 2002 of a massive number of bee stings. The fund in his honor was created shortly thereafter and the picnic has been an annual event since, Delgado said.

Meeting Haugen at the party after the picnic was "electric," Kutz said.

"I was immediately attracted to him," she said. "He joked that I was falling over myself."

"It was love at first sight, in both directions," Delgado confirmed. "They were both adventurous, and they'd met their match."

A freelance technical writer, Kutz had also been an avid research diver for 13 years. Haugen, 47, once a thrill-driver for car commercials, was a longtime professional diver.

Their first date was a dive with friends in Monterey Bay. Later, they would dive all over the California coast, surveying reefs for an organization called Reef Check California.

Just three weeks into their relationship, a dive at Monastery Beach nearly killed them both, Kutz said.

Kutz was caught suddenly in a twisting current like a washing machine. Haugen tried without success to pull her out. She prepared for the worst.

"I had said goodbye to the planet and it was very peaceful," Kutz said. "My prayer, unless a miracle happened, was that he [also] reached that peaceful place."

Then, she passed out.

When she regained consciousness, she was at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula. Haugen had pulled her out of the water.

"It's been an intense relationship," Kutz said through sobs on Monday. "I just want people to know he was a really sweet guy. He would do anything for anybody."

Soon after the rescue, Kutz and Haugen moved in together in Marina. They had recently been talking about moving to a bigger place to fit all of their mountain biking and scuba equipment. And maybe even some animals, which seem to be attracted to Haugen.

"They kind of teased that he was the patron saint of the sea otters and sea lions," Kutz said. "He was just funny that way, like Dr. Doolittle.''

Haugen, who has three teenage children scheduled to visit soon from Illinois, was working as a dockmaster for the Monterey Sailing School at Breakwater Cove. It was from his office there on Saturday afternoon that he called Kutz and told her he planned to go out sailing in the windy weather.

"I did not want him to go out," Kutz said.

By the time she arrived at the harbor on Saturday evening, firetrucks and police cars were on the scene.

At Breakwater Cove on Monday afternoon, a soft rain fell outside Quarter Deck Marine Supply where Robert Lewis sat next to a police scanner. He said he was waiting to hear any word about his friend.

"He's such a guy," Lewis said, choking up.

Lewis said he met him a couple of years ago, when Haugen was repairing boats and started buying pieces at the shop. Haugen was good with boats and was very close to other sailors who hung out at the dock, a tight-knit bunch, Lewis said.

"All that anyone knows for sure is that he was not on the boat," he said, pausing. "This place is poorer without him. It's terrible."