Two fishing boats overdue back to Homer since Tuesday, Nov. 28, were located about 10 a.m. Friday morning by the U.S. Coast Guard in McCarty Fjord east of Gore Point on the south end of the Kenai Peninsula. Located safe and not in distress were the 42-foot F/V Volga and the 37-foot Sea Fever with three adults and two children, owned by Fadey and Dimitry Kuzmin. The vessels were headed back to Homer Friday morning.

The wife of one fisherman reported the boats overdue about 7:15 p.m. Thursday night. They had been expected to return on Monday or Tuesday. The Homer harbormaster confirmed the boats had not returned to the harbor.

The U.S. Coast Guard in Kodiak launched an H-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew about 8:30 p.m., concentrating its search in the Marmot Island and Shuyak Island area at the north end of Kodiak Island, where they had been reported fishing. The Coast Guard searched without success for about eight hours Thursday night and early Friday morning, said Petty Officer Kurt Fredrickson of the public affairs detachment, U.S. Coast Guard 17th District. Visibility was about a quarter-mile. The Jayhawk refueled in Homer Thursday night.

A U.S.C.G. C-130 plane this morning found the two boats in McCarty Fjord about 10 a.m. and made contact with the fishermen. All hands were reported safe and the vessels not in danger. Frederickson did not know why the fishermen had been delayed or why they had gone to McCarty Fjord. McCarty Fjord is about 125 miles northeast of Marmot Island.

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.