Follow-up to Sailboat Blues

Regarding my last post on the sailboat stuck on the reef. Here is the last photo I received just before they finally righted it.

The boat was finally lifted out and set on the water and drained. It eventually was moved to Sandy Bight and Henri's insurange agent was out within three days to investigate. As far as we have heard, he feels he will be reimbursed for the damages to the boat. Whether he will get enough to fix it or just replace it with something else (in either case he would have to come up with money for the difference) I do not know. Some people said that the damages would cost more than the boat was worth; others say no.

I have not talked to Henri but people that have talked to him say he is going to attempt to fix it.

Fortunately for Henri, who is a filmmaker of documentaries among other things, he got all his expensive cameras and equipment off the boat before the resuce operation began.

The island does not have a place designated as a dry dock and you would think with all the boats we have here someone would start one. Unfortunately it would take a lot of money to develop this type of business and people here, for the most part, are not inclined to spend money just to have their boat taken out of the water. Case in point. There is a service at the airport which will take your boat (not sailboat or yachts) out of the water and store it on land for a fee. One man recently had his boat taken out of the water because of inclement weather approaching. After he returned to claim the boat he felt he should not have to pay because the reason he had to get the boat out of the water was due to forecasted bad weather and the people at the airport should be willing to do this service out of the goodness of their heart!

We have one really good boat mechanic on the island who works on engines. We have various people who can do fiberglass work, but one really has to look to find them. We had a man who built boats, but when he was suspected of killing his girlfriend's "other" boyfriend and taken off the island by the authorities and, ultimately set free, he never returned to his continue his business.

So, I'm glad to report the boat is safe, for now, and supposedly being repaired - or not!