Vernon Dale McGee, known as Vern, was 49 when he and fellow fisherman Michael Dunne left Juneau aboard the 35-foot wooden troller Transition on February 20, 2008, bound for Ketchikan. The vessel and its two-person crew never arrived and all communication was lost. A U.S.

Coast Guard search covered the route between Juneau and Ketchikan; the only debris positively linked to the boat was a door found on Kupreanof Island in Frederick Sound. No bodies or the vessel were recovered, and both men are presumed deceased. The disappearance remains an open case in a region noted for unpredictable weather and dangerous seas.

Did anyone in the Juneau or Ketchikan maritime community have knowledge of the Transition’s last voyage or its condition before departure?