SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The last 12 months have been a slow healing process for Heather Sawdon, who lost her younger sister, Kristy Finstad, in the Conception dive boat disaster that occurred on Labor Day weekend in 2019.  

What You Need To Know

  • The fire aboard the dive boat Conception one year ago killed 34 people

  • Heather Sawdon lost her younger sister, Kristy Finstad in the tragedy

  • Sawdon is working on a book about her sister and the 33 other people who died aboard the boat

“Grieving is a longer process than you would imagine, and each of my family members, we’ve been there for each other to help each other get through it, but we all go through it differently,” Sawdon said, speaking to Spectrum News 1 via Zoom from her home in the Midwest.

Sawdon turned to the therapeutic power of writing to sort through the heartbreaking loss. 

She said a day doesn’t go by when she doesn’t think about Kristy, who was a marine biologist, a loving wife to her college sweetheart, Dan Chua, and a life-long adventurer.

“She will forever be an inspiration to me,” Sawdon said. “She always lived her life to the fullest with no regrets. People say she lived how others dream.” 

Sawdon still remembers the first time she saw the harrowing images of the Conception engulfed in flames on the news.  

The dive boat, carrying 33 passengers and six crew members, caught fire shortly after 3 a.m. on September 2, 2019 off the coast of the Channel Islands near Santa Barbara.  

“Honestly, I didn’t have hope that she was with us still,” Sawdon said. “When I got the news, nobody expected it. Just such a shock. How many times we had been on that boat and had a great time.” 

Sawdon said she and Finstad learned to dive off that very boat and were passengers on some of the Conception’s first voyages in the 1980s.

For the past year, the mystery of the Conception’s final voyage has plagued Sawdon. How did the fire start? What really happened that night? And most importantly, what were Finstad’s final moments like? 

“I really wanted to know, did she suffer? I had been struggling with the nightmare. I’d wake up and look at the clock. ‘Darnit, 3 in the morning again,’ and it was like this chocking feeling,” Sawdon said of her struggles to cope with grief. 

Sawdon was overwhelmed with emotion when one of Finstad’s personal belongings was recovered from the underwater wreckage. Rescue divers found her dayplanner, which was still holding a love note written by their father to Finstad. 

“It reads, ‘More than anything I love you. I love what you have to say and your voice is beautiful. Love, dad,” Sawdon read as tears came streaming down her face.

It was actually Finstad’s love of writing that inspired Sawdon to begin drafting a book about the Conception’s final dive trip, gathering memories and stories of not just her sister, but the other 33 lives lost on the boat. Sawdon said many of the other victims were like family to the Finstads.

“There’s an amazing story there of amazing people,” Sawdon said. “One of the most important things is to show hope and comfort through it and a sense of peace.” 

In addition to telling the story of that fateful weekend, she plans to write about the federal investigation into the fire. A cause has yet to be determined, but the NTSB plans to hold a hearing in October to discuss the agency’s investigation into the fire.  

In its preliminary report, the NTSB said interviews with the five surviving crew members revealed there was no roving night watchman, as required by the U.S. Coast Guard on passenger vessels. 

Sawdon feels strongly the cause of the blaze will have something to do with lithium-ion batteries. She recalled charging stations located near the back of the boat’s galley would be filled with everything from phones and laptops, to cameras and underwater lights.  

“It’s very likely that it’s a battery fire considering that a year before on the Vision boat, a dive light caught fire and they caught it at the smoldering stage,” Sawdon said. “So it didn’t make the big news.”  

Court documents filed in a sprawling lawsuit involving the boat company, Truth Aquatics, reveal criminal charges may be imminent against the boat captain, Jerry Boylan, who survived the disaster. Boylan’s attorney said he and his client have no comment for this report.

Sawdon said she avoids thinking about the legal battles involving the Conception. She wants to focus to be on honoring the lives of the victims, and exploring solutions and new boating safety regulations to avoid another disaster.   

“I want people to remember my sister for the amazing person that she was. And I have this drive to find out the details of what happened and share them in a way that people understand. And I do hope that this story will prevent it from happening again,” Sawdon said. 

If something good can surface from such an unspeakable tragedy, Sawdon feels it will add even more meaning to Finstad’s legacy.  And honor a life lost far too soon, a life lived the way others dream.