Boat Accident at Indian River Inlet update

In case you haven’t heard a boat crashed into the north jetty at Indian River Inlet last night.  There were a lot of emergency vehicles headed towards the inlet and helicopters flying overhead.  A friend of mine, Karen Hirst, sent me a message on Facebook, We just went to the inlet and it looks like there is a forty foot boat with a flying bridge on top of the north wall.  Then the messages started flooding my site and phone.  What is going on at the inlet was the most asked.

Luckily I had friends fishing at the time and they sent me some pictures and updates.  Clayton Gebhart posted a picture to our Facebook page and had this to say “He ran straight into the Northside Jetty and is stuck on the rocks. I was eating dinner in my camper and thought it strange that I heard thunder. Then I saw the DSP chopper.”  Boat U.S. was there trying to pump the water out to pull the boat off the rocks and float it back to the marina. According to Phil Williams they had 4 crash pumps on the boat and couldn’t keep the water out, so they had to cut loose for safety reasons and wait to see if the boat would still be on the rocks after high tide.   It was possible high tide would float the boat off the rocks and it would sink soon after that.  Otherwise they planned on trying to patch the hole so they could tow the boat back to the marina to be hauled out.

This morning the boat is stuck in the waves at the north beach of Indian River Inlet.  DNREC and Boat U.S. were there earlier this morning trying to come up with a salvage plan.  Presently there is debris washing up on the beaches north of there.  You can smell diesel fuel on the beach at north side, and people are fishing.  I don’t think I would do any fishing near that right now, and I certainly wouldn’t eat them.   Looks like we might have to get a beach clean up organized for this weekend, or i am going down later and doing some shopping on the beach.  From what I understand it is the boat owners responsibility to have this mess cleaned up.  We do not know who owns this boat, named Magic, however it was purchased the other day in New Jersey.   Apparently the owners hit the north jetty when they confused the buoy markers upon their entrance into the Indian River Inlet.  We do not know if they are familiar with these waters.

I would steer clear fishing the inlet until they get this mess cleaned up, just to remain out of the way.  The leaking fuel is not flammable like gasoline, but the stench is rather uncomfortable and certainly not good for our waters.  Hopefully this will be cleaned up soon and it has not stopped anyone from fishing down there this morning.  At the moment people are on the north side watching the boat being salvaged, and DNREC is pulling the boat onto the beach with large machinery.  The boaters were injured but nothing life threatening.  We do not have any updates of their current condition.

Fish On!!

Rich King