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A collision occurred at the downtown Sanford Marina as a popular paddle-wheeler offering lunch and dinner cruises was blown off course while docking. Ship Salvage Airbags
On Tuesday night, the Barbara-Lee dinner cruise ship ended in a tight spot. In a video captured by witnesses, you can hear the paddle-wheeler making contact with a sailboat, snapping its mast off.
"Sometimes you can sleeve it, but where it's broken is in a bad place," said Captain D.J., who uses that sailboat to teach people how to sail.
"He just took out the sailboat," you can hear a bystander say on the video.
"The west wind is evil for our situation," Captain D.J. said.
"I could feel her pull against the ropes, and that is not a normal condition unless there's a sudden gust of wind," Stacey Guth, who lives with her partner on their boat nearby, said.
Guth started recording the paddle-wheeler when it was clear things were going badly.
"Things happen quickly, sometimes they happen quickly, sometimes they happen in slow motion, that's what happened last night," Guth said.
"There was a strong gust of wind and it pushed us into a sailboat," Michelle Wyatt, the owner of the Barbara-Lee said.
Because the sailboat was damaged to the point it can't sail, the Coast Guard stopped to take a look.
"They basically said it's the equivalent of a fender bender, you know, it happens," Wyatt said.
"The Barbara-Lee is just a paddle-wheeler, no thrusters, just a paddle wheel, so she gets sideways to the wind, she can't really help herself," Captain D.J. said.
Even a push boat couldn't prevent contact.
"We feel horrible about the damage done to the boat, but the most important thing is no one was hurt," Wyatt said.
Captain D.J. says that the sailboat tied up on the corner is in a vulnerable spot, and she's hopeful with all of this going on that a piling can be placed in there to protect that corner.
According to marina management, that piling is coming in the next few weeks.
The cruise company will cover the damage to the sailboat, and by midday Wednesday, the Barbara-Lee was out for a lunch cruise.
Captain D.J. says her sailboat has some damage in addition to the mast, but it appears it can all be fixed.
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