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If you were anywhere near Southeast False Creek this past Saturday I imagine you noticed the shipwrecked sailboat resting on the rocks of Habitat Island. I'm not sure if it made the news (it would have to be a pretty slow news day but hey, bigger non-stories have made the 6 o'clock) but it was buzzing all over social media as it was pretty much impossible for people not to take a photo of it as they happened by. Here's one that I Instagram'd of my son with it, early in the morning before the tide had gone all the way out.
Almost every single person who walked by with a smartphone took a photo of it on Saturday and after I shot the one above there was an older gentleman lingering around, shooting the odd photo and throwing off a vibe that told me he had no interest in sharing through any form of social media. However, right before he left he shared his story with me, unexpectedly starting a conversation with "That's my boat out there!". He then went on to tell me that his son had taken it out the night before and was "entertaining some ladies" on False Creek before accidentally running it ashore. He got a phone call at 2AM from his son letting him know that though he had tried to get it off the rocks, it was going to be there until the tide came up. "I could kill him!" was how he ended it, and I sorta chuckled and went on my way.
I returned later in the day and shot the above photo of it at low tide, then ran into a friend who had actually been there late the night before when it shipwrecked! She told me that the ill-fated captain tried for hours and hours to dislodge the boat, running from one side of it to the other attempting to rock it free. Despite many onlookers offering help he was determined to do it himself, and at one point he rocked the boat with such force that he flew overboard! The coast guard came in, the VPD also stopped by, and in the end he threw his arms in the air in defeat, knowing that only Mother Nature was going to be able to unlodge his dad's sailboat from our little island.
I hate to say it but his misfortune the previous night made a brighter day for a lot of people as they wondered how it got there, and if it might become a permanent fixture. On Sunday though, the only signs that it had ever been there were a bit of rudder paint on the rocks and a trail of Instagram, Facebook and Twitter ghosts. Word around the neighbourhood is that after two cycles of the tide the water finally went high enough to set it free.
UPDATE! JULY 9, 2:08PM: the sailboat didn't actually get free simply due to the tide rising. As seen in posted to Youtube, and according to the person who shot it, "The tide lifted the boat to the point that it was floating and appeared to be fully upright. The keel, however, was still stuck in the rocks. He [the owner?] was trying to rock it side-to-side to raise it enough but couldn't quite manage it. The boat that eventually helped them out passed by a couple times. They were having a party, loud music, skimpy bathing suits and all. Eventually the guy on the boat shouted at them to go past really quickly, to create a wake that might raise his boat high enough to clear the rocks. It didn't work. After that, the party boat turned down the music and came in close enough to throw a rope. It took a couple more attempts with the rope before he got free."
UPDATE! JULY 10, 10:07AM: The hilarious folks over at Definitely Raining made a post about the incident. .
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