Capt. John's Bahamas Salvage Adventure

by Captain John Andrews
Safe/Sea President
email: john.andrews@safesea.com

Most long time Safe/Sea members will probably remember the article about my 2000 trip to Newfoundland and St. Pierre with my great friends and business associates from Florida. Well, Larry and Tina came up with another beauty. The day before I was planning to visit them in April, Larry called me on my Nextel as I was leaving Key West and asked if I would like to go to Cat Cay in the Bahamas the next day to watch his crew salvage a 53 foot Oyster sailboat.

Well, as the saying goes, "does the cat like mice?". Needless to say, the Safe/Sea truck made a beeline for the M/Y Offshore Lady in Lighthouse Point, Florida. You may remember that the Offshore Lady is a beautiful 58 foot Merritt sport fisherman which was custom built in 2000. She cruises at 30 knots and is completely equipped with safety gear for cruising offshore and to remote locations. She was to be the mothership for the salvage adventure starting early the next morning.

At 0500 on Thursday, two of Larry's custom built, offshore JC salvage vessels were underway for the 60 nautical mile crossing to Cat Cay. At 0600 the Offshore Lady was underway (she is 10 knots faster than the salvage vessels). A compliment of 7 were on board to join the one captain who had flown over three days earlier to prepare for the salvage (the weather had prevented a crossing for three days).

Upon arrival we found the casualty, which has a draft of 5+ feet, aground in about 2 feet of water. With high water less that one hour away, the crew immediately set to rigging lift bags and a rescue hull strap. In the interim, Larry can be seen in the picture negotiating with a local fisherman over the payment for services rendered to the salvage captain who had been tending the casualty over the interveining 3 days. If you will note the posture displayed in the picture, you might be able to determine who got the better of whom.

The salvage crew did an amazing job of rigging the casualty for removal. Everything was ready within the hour. The rescue hawser was made fast and the removal began. After 30 minutes of highly skilled maneuvering, the casualty was refloated. Two hours later, everything was cleaned up, the owner was aboard and the tow to Ft. Lauderdale commensed.

For those of us lucky enough to come over on the Merritt, it was a brief stop at the open air, dockside Tiki Bar for some refreshment and them back to the USA. Thanks to my great friends at Offshore Marine Towing/TowBoatU.S. Ft. Lauderdale and Lighthouse Point for another fabulous tropical salvage adventure.

What's Next?? Alaska?