A 42-foot motor boat ran aground outside the Port of Kingston on Tuesday morning, prompting a spill response from port and fire crews.

The boat, registered in Portland, Ore., hit a sandbar at about 10:30 a.m. in the entrance to Apple Tree Cove, said North Kitsap Fire and Rescue spokeswoman Michele Laboda. Port of Kingston employees tried to pull the boat across the sandbar without success and the ebbing tide left it stranded.

Laboda said the boat listed to about 50 degrees, causing some diesel fuel to seep out of the boat’s tanks. Crews from the port and North Kitsap Fire deployed an oil spill containment boom around the boat to prevent fuel from spreading.

The boat’s owner and his two passengers were able to collect about six gallons of fuel with buckets, Laboda said. About two gallons spilled onto the water and either evaporated or was collected with absorbent pads.

The boat was later freed and no one on board was injured, Laboda said.

Department of Ecology spokesman Larry Altose said his agency was alerted to the spill but did not dispatch an agent.

Port and North Kitsap Fire employees responded to the spill using equipment from a spill response trailer stationed at the port by Ecology in 2007.