Fort Lauderdale Tow Company Works To Rescue Beached Boat
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FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – You couldn't ask for a more beautiful day on Fort Lauderdale Beach. Tourists and snowbirds packed the beach – not to enjoy the blue skies, or mega cruise ships cruising by. They came to gawk.
Pam Barlow, a Fort Lauderdale resident looked on at the shoreline.
"I feel really sorry for them," she said.
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A commercial fishing boat came ashore Friday night. Details on how that happened aren't exactly clear.
The Coast Guard claimed the boat collided with the jetty.
However, the boat did not appear to have any gashes or evidence of a major collision with rocks.
Others say the engine failed and the boat was simply pushed ashore.
What is clear is when the crew was evacuated one person was seriously injured trying to get onto the Coast Guard's boat.
The crew member is still being treated at Memorial Hospital in Hollywood.
Crew members nor the Coast Guard would clarify how the crew member is doing and what the exact cause of the accident was.
Tow Boat US spent the weekend devising a plan to salvage the boat. After a day of digging, at high tide Sunday a series of rescue boats began to pull.
"Oh yeah, I think they'll get it out. It's a heavy boat. We'll see how they do," said eyewitness Ray Foley.
Snowbird Al Wisesinger added, "I've been boating my whole life. They have struts on that. They have propellers, they have a heel. And once that thing gets pulled out, that thing is going down."
Much of the beach was skeptical, but almost everyone had a solution.
Salvage expert Travis Bason with TowBoatUS chuckled when asked about it.
"Everybody comes up to us and says, 'you are doing it all wrong'. Okay if you can do better go ahead and get yourself in," he said.
For a moment the boat gave way. But as it tilted you could see the rudder and prop would be a problem, just at Wisesinger predicted.
"All that stuff it creates suction in the mud there, just like if you stick your foot in there. It's stuck," Bason explained.
Bason believes they are going to have break it off in order to move the boat. They'll try again Monday.
When asked whether he believe they would move the vessel Monday Bason smiled and promised, "Oh it's coming off tomorrow. Guarantee that one!"
Bason says they work through the day Monday to start pulling the boat around 5 p.m. with high tide coming in at 6:15 p.m.