Near the end of a 3,300-mile voyage from Southern California, the crew on the sailboat Victoria could see the lights of the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor, their final destination, Sunday night.

"We turned around Diamond Head and you could see the Ala Wai," crew member Ron Fulwider, 58, said. "A mile, maybe two away and then ... "

But the Victoria sailed too close to shore and ran aground on a reef at the Tonggs surf break off Diamond Head. Fulwider called his wife, Renee, who arrived on O'ahu a day earlier to greet the trio of sailors as they finished their trip from San Pedro, Calif.

Fulwider, his uncle and ship captain Pat Magee, 75, and Magee's 68-year-old friend Jerry Manning were unhurt. The state hired Cates International to remove the boat from the reef.

The trio had set sail for Hawai'i on Sept. 1 on the 42-foot sailboat, which Magee had bought three years ago on eBay for $4,300. A longtime seaman, Magee bought the boat so he could travel from his home on Maui around the Islands. He spent the past two years and more than $20,000 renovating the boat before they set sail to bring it home.

"We had a couple of false starts starting out," said Fulwider, a California resident. "We had to turn around three days out to sea because one crew member got so belligerent so we had to bring him back and drop him off. That was six days. This trip, we were at sea 17 days."

Fulwider initially called his wife Sunday night to tell her the Victoria was circling Diamond Head and in the home stretch. He called back a little later, telling her to call the Coast Guard after the boat ran aground.

"Pat's a seasoned sailor," Fulwider said. "I couldn't believe it. This was my first trip overseas, but it was his eighth.

"I feel terrible for him. He spent a lot of time working on that boat. He hasn't had one the past few years. This was going to get him from island to island."

Fire Department rescue personnel responded to the boat-in-distress call before 1 a.m. When the crew arrived, the three men aboard refused to leave the boat. At the time, they said, it wasn't taking on water and believed high tide in the morning might lift it free and back into the deeper channel, about 30 yards away.

Around 2 a.m., that changed. Trying to nudge the boat out, the trio lifted the boat's sail — but that only served to tighten the reef's grip on the boat as it tilted to the side. Soon after, it started to fill with water and the Fire Department was called back.

The sailboat was stuck just offshore, and two neighbors who had heard the commotion outside grabbed a kayak and surfboard to help out.

Fulwider was the first to jump into the water and walk to safety, bringing all his electronics in a cooler before walking out to the boat again to get more valuables and to urge his mates to come shore.

Manning soon followed, then Magee.

Cates International removed some large pieces of the Victoria yesterday and may remove the rest tomorrow, said Deborah Ward, spokeswoman for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

All three kept a sense of humor about the experience.

Manning, sitting alongside a building as firefighters checked their vitals, pulled out a yellow piece of police tape that had the words "CALL POLICE" in big black letters.

"They laughed at my survival kit," Manning said, waving the tape. "What time is the first flight out?"

Reach Dave Dondoneau at ddondoneau@honoluluadvertiser.com.