shipwreck

There was someone in attendance this time and the story was pretty strange. The sailboat and owner had arrived at Cozumel, single-handed, from Huntington Beach Calif and anchored in sand with a 60# Bruce and all chain anchor line. Dingied to shore looking for a hotel to crash in. While recuperating that night a "Nor-tay" (cold fierce wind from the North) came up and pulled hard enough on this guys single anchor to dig the anchor down to the smooth rock bottom underlying the sand and start to drag. Once started it was pretty easy to keep dragging onto the rocks of shore. The Nor-tay waves were big enough to drive her up high and dry, where I first saw her. After a couple days of screwing around with little boats trying to pull her off, the side stove in, and then. . . . . and then. . . . . . MR. Right shows up. After another day of screwing around and negotiating, Mr Huntington Beach signs off on the documentation and flies home that night (No, there was not a lick of insurance). Mr Right makes a fiberglass patch off the good side. Using tide and waves and a lot of screwing around gets the boat up on some short fat blocking and slides the patch under the damaged area. He screws and glues the patch in place and starts pumping. After a day she is almost dry but. . . . . another Nor-tay starts to blow in. Preceding the roll clouds of the storm two ferries arrive together in a rush and their combined wake lift her up off the blocking and bounces her around, beating openings in the hull and tearing the patch off. The pumps fall behind (humor). Next morning she is in the position Richard and I found her on my second trip, headed the other direction. Now with ingenuity and resources nearly exhausted Mr right packs her full of floatation. A Zodiac and all the styrofoam the island could offer. He has a pal with a tall ship replica that swings a 36" prop. Pal and prop come by and 'DRAG' her off and tows her, half submerged, to the 'Pureto Ambriga' marina North of downtown.

There is a Travel-lift marina 3 miles away with astoundingly expensive yard fees but he has no plan yet. This all happens the day before I move over to Cozumel to dive. When I get there the wind is still blowing like hell out of the North and one of the ferries had an engine quit as they were leaving the dock. After writing her name in the sea with just one engine she goes aground. This second grounding is very near the Choy Lee's old site. What a circus that would have been.

It takes a 'Cattle call' dive boat and the Pilot boat to pull the ferry off after the passengers were taken off by a dinner cruiser. I finally met Mr. Right at the marina while I was on a bicycle excursion. He was trying to get a local crane service to pull him out, but there was just no way to get the crane in the marina to set up. The Army's big Helo would do it but it would cost more than the Travel-lift and yard fee. =) He finally makes a deal with a fiberglass wizard and tows her down to the Travel-lift yard for haul out. . . . . . .
Ouch!, what a sight.

Months ago Mr Right has booked a flight home to Missouri for Christmas and it departs in 6 days. She's gotta be in the water in 5. The fiberglasser and crew clear away all the interior junk around the damage. They tap the skin to map the extent of delimitation and grind back about a foot beyond the line on the inside. They reposition all the pieces with battens and screws on the outside of the hull. After the above picture was taken they'd finally found the patch, brought it to the yard and cut it up to fill in the gaps. When they got the shape just right they waxed the inside of the damaged area and started laminating over the damage onto the ground down perimeter. It rained for two days and the work went on with the laminations steaming. Then they peeled, picked and ground away all the debris back to solid glass, and laminated some more on the outside. They filled and smoothed until it was damned near perfect, sealed it over and -Splash-. The engine had been sealed before the first flooding so he was able to motor back to the marina and fly home on time. He claims it was all done with just 250# of material. Amazing.