A totally random, really unfortunate accident

Okay, everyone is fine. The boat is not.

Just when I was working to complete the last post, we had an unfortunately accident that has significantly altered the trajectory of our trip. A runaway unmanned jet ski hit the forward starboard side of Seasura. It happened just after we pulled into the new anchorage for the evening, to join our friends for a superbowl party. The jet ski was going nearly full speed. We were so scared at first that it had a rider because nobody would have survived that impact. It put a large dent in the side of our boat, causing cracking in the hull and major damage to the bulkhead. Thank goodness it hit the bulkhead though, or it might have gone right through the hull and the boat would have sunk. Instead, we have a major hull repair job to do but the boat is still floating and thankfully not taking on water. All of us were uninjured, just shocked.

We are so sad. We don’t know what this means for the rest of our trip. We are starting by doing a temporary repair job here in Georgetown. That way we can move the boat back up to Florida and have it hulled out on the hard for a proper repair. We will have to motor to Florida to minimize the stresses on the hull.

We are not sure how long it will take to repair. Best case scenario, they will be able to hull us out when we get back to Florida next week and take 2-3 weeks to repair it. I am going home to work a little during that time anyway. However, we will now be starting far behind our friends and our intended route. And of course, things could take much longer than we want. The big kids are very sad that they will miss out on their blossoming friendships and learning how to do water activities in the Ragged Islands like we had been planning.

The man responsible owned up to it right away. He came with some friends and admitted it. We tried to hold the jet ski in our dinghy davits for the police to see in the morning, they couldn’t come out at 6pm, but also because it was sinking. However, the man came back later in the evening with two friends who were quite threatening and pulled out a knife to cut it down, so we let them have it. Luckily we got lots of picture anyway and the police were already aware. The following day, we went to the police station to make a statement and the man who took responsibility had been there and made a statement as well. He offered to have our boat fixed by a friend, but the damage is much too extensive (and the boat contruction too specific) for them to address it. So, Kevin and he made a deal that he would pay what he could towards repairs. It wasn’t much, but it was more than we expected, and at least will pay the hauling out fee and some marina costs. It was nice that he was so responsible. There is no sueing people here in the Bahamas. The police were happy to witness the transaction and money exchange.

We will, of course, keep you all posted on what happens next.