TILLAMOOK, Ore. (AP) - The first of the 25-foot waves set the boat rocking, and deckhand Sam Johnson says he was looking the second wave "right in the eye. It was like it was coming after us."

Seconds later, it struck. And then came another.

"Ever see a wave control a 92-ton vessel?" said fellow crew member Gregory Phillips. "Look inside a washing machine and watch the clothing tumble over and over and over."

That third wave flipped the crab boat, the Starrigavan, and heaved it against the rocks of the south jetty of Tillamook Bay. A few hours later a third crew member, Kenneth Venard, died of injuries from the wreck.

Johnson and Phillips recounted it in an interview with The Oregonian newspaper. The boat crashed Thursday night. The skipper, Kirk Opheim, also survived.

Johnson said the 58-foot, steel-hulled boat was returning from two days at sea, with 5,000 pounds of crab aboard.

"We were starving, and we finally got crab," Johnson recalled from his bed at the Tillamook County General Hospital.

"It was beautiful," he said. "It's always beautiful out there. We were catching crab; we were flowing."

At about 9 p.m., the Starrigavan began crossing the bar, the dangerous stretch of water at the entrance to the jetties. The waves began crashing, and the crew struggled, Opheim radioing one mayday. Venard, known as "Skinny," was in the wheelhouse.

"Skinny was pinned," Johnson said. "Greg and me pushed him out the door."

On deck, the seas pressed the men to the rails and hampered their attempts to don survival suits.

"Skinny was against the rail trying to put his on, and it just sucked it off of him," Johnson said of the waves.

The men managed to get up against the wheelhouse bulkhead, which offered some protection. Half an hour later, the Coast Guard boats arrived, but they couldn't get to the Starrigavan. So, the crew waited for a helicopter from Astoria to pluck them from the boat.

The men wore only shirts and jeans and began to suffer from hypothermia. The helicopter lowered a rescue swimmer by basket. The crew and a rescue swimmer worked to get Venard into the basket.

"I had Skinny by the legs," Johnson said. "The diver had him by the arms. We didn't see the wave coming. It ripped Skinny right out of my hands. He smashed into the other side of the boat. When I saw him again, Skinny was in bad shape. I thought if we could just get Skinny out first, we were all going to make it."

Venard died later that night at the hospital. Phillips and Opheim were released Friday morning. Johnson remained hospitalized with cuts all over his body.

Johnson called Venard "a good spirit, always willing to offer his shirt off his back. On New Year's Eve, we were on the boat. No one had any money. He spent his last $5 to get me a calling card to call my wife."

Although this was his first season, Phillips wants to go back out fishing. Johnson isn't so sure.

"To tell you the truth, at this moment I'm afraid to even step on a dock," Johnson said. "I'm tired of walking by benches and seeing my friend's names on them. I thought I was next. Skinny didn't deserve that. I wish it would have been me."

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)