Divers
on Wednesday began the process of raising the 35 ft sport fishing
vessel that sank in 18 feet of water in Neuse River off Oriental
last week. They hope to complete that job today (Thursday) and
have the boat hauled ashore.
The plan is to bring it to SailCraft Services boat yard, where
the boat will be placed in the yard for a closer inspection
- hopefully to find clues as to why the boat sank and two men
on board died.
Some clues
emerged on Tuesday, when dive crews found an opened engine hatch
on the boat.
Dive
crews at work Tuesday near Marker # 7 |
Captain
Dean Lee, Coast Guard Sector Commander for NC, says a dive to
the boat Tuesday revealed that “the engine hatch was upright,
the key to one engine was off, and the throttles were in neutral.”
That could indicate, Lee says, that the crew of the boat was
looking in to something going on in the engine room at the time
the boat sank. But he stresses that that’s just speculation
at this point.
The exterior of the boat did not show any “structural
damage.” Lee told TownDock.net. “There was no evidence
that it collided (with something) or had a hole in it.”
The two men set out on Sunday, February 5 from Edenton where
the boat was manufactured. They were headed to Fort Lauderdale
where a dealer planned to have the boat on display for a boat
show. The last recorded sighting of the boat, Captain Lee says,
was at the Alligator River bridge at 9:40 Sunday morning.
A question that has jumped to many minds in recent days has
centered on whether the men were able to call for help.
The family of one of the men says that they always carried handheld
VHF’s and cell phones on their deliveries.
Captain Lee says that a review of the incoming calls to the
Coast Guard did not reveal any mayday or distress calls last
Sunday in the area where the boat went down.
Captain Lee however, notes that the handheld radios can only
reach so far.
A higher power VHF with an external antenna could have reached
farther, he says, but the boat did not have one installed.
On Monday, Captain Lee says, the Coast Guard itself found the
limitations of the hand held VHF radios while in the middle
of the Neuse. “Our own hand-helds,” he says, “weren’t
working out there.”
Lee says that he hopes the investigation -- jointly conducted
with NC Wildlife Resources -- will provide lessons to avoid
future sinkings and deaths on the water.
If there were one piece of advice he could give at this point,
Lee says that mariners “need to have a way of communicating
if they need help.” That he says, is the “number
one tip for both rookie and pro” alike.
Related
Links:
Boat Delivery Turns Disaster,
Feb 11
