On June 29th, 2013 at approximately 2200 hours, I Officer of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, was on routine water patrol when I observed a vessel speeding through a slow speed zone in Ski Alley, Englewood FL.  I stopped the vessel and made contact with the people on board.  One man immediately told me his vessel was sinking in Stump Pass.

I notified dispatch and headed toward the location of the sinking vessel.  I arrived just minutes later and saw a vessel (FL 5218 MY) washed onto the south beach of Stump Pass or Thorton Key.  The occupants of the vessel (V1) had already jumped off the vessel onto the beach without any injuries.  The owner/operator of V1 arrived back to his boat several minutes after I had.  Operator explained his friend was able to rescue the 4 people, put them on his vessel and were headed back to drop them off at the house when I stopped them.

Operator explained he was headed west, out of Stump Pass when he slowed down to fish the south beach of Thorton Key.  Once at an idle, he turned south to fish the beach.  The 2-3 foot waves coming in from the Gulf, and a strong outgoing tide created a turbulent sea state.  Operator said he took several waves over the starboard gunnel and the boat began to take on water.  V1 started listing to the starboard and Operator headed toward the beach to keep the vessel from completely sinking.  Once V1 was beached, all 4 occupants were able to get off the vessel safely.  V1 pointed east on the beach as sand and waved crashed into it.

Operator anchored V1 to the beach that night and was able to retrieve the vessel the next day without any further incident.  Operator estimated $15,000 in damage.
ENGLEWOOD