On saturday may 5th, 2012 at 8:46 am, i received a phone call from hoosier hills marina on patoka lake.  They advised they had a customer run aground with their 33 foot recreational vessel yesterday evening and the female owner was taken to the hospital in salem with a possible broken arm.  They stated it was near the beach off the east point where they shoot the fireworks displays every year.  They explained they attempted to tow the vessel off the ground but were unsuccessful with their ninety horse center consol.  The sand was getting into the exhaust ports of the stranded vessel's engines and the engines were getting hot, they explained. Therefore, they ceased in attempting to remove the vessel for the time being. They stated the vessel's owner was coming out today (saturday) to attempt to move the vessel.
	i asked hoosier hills marina to contact me when the vessel's owner showed up and i would come over and take a report.  I contacted ico who was working at the time and made him aware of the vessel.  
	at approximately noon ico received radio traffic from south region.  South region advised that patoka reservoir's main office had received a phone call about a boat being abandoned near the beach.  Ico went out to make sure it was the same boat we were advised of earlier.
I had not heard anything from the marina, so around twelve-thirty i contacted them. I identified myself and Operator knew who i was stating to his wife, "it's your friend the one that took you to jail". Operator advised his friend had a fishing boat and they were coming to the lake to retrieve his personal belongings (computer) from the vessel.  He stated a subject had a tow boat and he was going to remove the vessel on monday.  I explained to him that we received a sufficient amount of rain last night and the lake raised some which might help in removing the vessel.  I told Operator to call me when he gets into town, so i could get with him and make a boat accident report.  Operator stated he had my phone number and that he had already made an insurance claim this morning on the accident.  I told Operator the vessel was fine with me to stay until monday. I contacted the local sheriff departments and the region to notify them that the boat would be staying where it was for the time being.  
	i next met ico.  He picked me up and we went to look at the vessel and the situation.  We located the vessel described on the point east of the beach side shore.  It had water underneath of it, but not more than six inches.  Coming off from the point were two shallow marker buoys on the west side and one on the east side.  A large stump was also visibly sticking up from the surface just out from the farthest buoy on the west side.
The vessel is a 33 foot sea ray enclosed cabin sport cruiser.  We had a difficult time getting our sixteen foot boston whaler up to the vessel due to the shallow water.  The vessel appeared to be documented through the us coast guard with the name "last chance" and port of salem, in written on the stern.  I took pictures of the vessel in its current position and condition.  We could not locate an indiana excise sticker or indiana registration on the vessel nor an indiana dnr lake use permit.  I located the hin number on the starboard "right" rear of the stern as sert99435697.  The hin number did not come back as registered to a vessel in the state of indiana.  Using the us coastguard's vessel document website (1), i could not locate a documented vessel with the given name, either.
 
The vessel had two throttle controls and both were all the way in reverse.  The cabin was closed and i did not notice any damage to the dash area.  I large white cooler stood near the stern port side.  On the starboard stern side of the vessel were several large cables, possibly belonging to a computer. 

French Lick                   