Something new on the Wild East Side

[DjDiverDan]

I just spotted a post on the Cozumel 4 You Facebook forum - a rather expensive looking boat just washed ashore on the East Side.

Apparently, the couple that was sailing this boat from Jamaica to Panama had to abandon the boat somewhere in the Caribbean - why is unclear - illness? Pirates? Maybe they both left the boat to go swimming and it drifted away? - The couple that was sailing the boat was rescued and are now home safe. But the boat drifted for quite a way and ended up on Cozumel. Looks like a potential windfall to some Cozumel salvage operator.

 

[Brules]

Per the pics on the Facebook Coz group the bottom is ripped out pretty bad.

Biggest issue is she is full of fuel they said. Hope it can be unloaded quickly and the boat taken care of.

 

[DjDiverDan]

I assume that the bottom was ripped up when it washed up on Cozumel's ironstone. It couldn't have been too damaged for it to drift intact for several hundred miles to Cozumel. I'm really curious about what made the owners abandon ship in the middle of the Caribbean, but the owners are being very mum about that. Even if the engine was dead, this boat had sails - which were all furled. What makes anyone abandon a boat that is still floating and take to the open ocean in a dinghy?

 

[nwflyboy]

Law enforcement of some kind...

 

[DjDiverDan]

Law enforcement of some kind...

Hard info? Or just speculation?

 

[cvchief]

LE off the coast of Jamaica?

 

[nwflyboy]

Hard info? Or just speculation?

Just snarky speculation. But you raised very valid questions...why would anyone? I can only think of a few remotely plausible reasons, and with the owners being tight-lipped...

 

[lthomas132]

Shrouds appear to be in place, no sign of fire, danforth anchor attached. I would say either something illegal, lost steerage, or pirates. Pirates will strip valuables and set the sailors loose in a dingy if they don't just kill them. Happens more times than you hear of.

Update: here's the blog from the boat owners: The Voyages of Aria
Sounds like they had it fixed where it lay then sailed it away

 

[Brules]

? I couldn't make sense of how they lost the boat? And did they get it off the east side then?

 

[lthomas132]

? I couldn't make sense of how they lost the boat? And did they get it off the east side then?

The blog says they were between Jamaica & Panama, "Tammy and I are okay. We were rescued by four Jamaican fisherman, who ferried us to a freighter bound for Cartegna. Aria is lost."