Bewildered Outer Banks beachgoers watch for days as stuck boat is hammered by waves
A fishing vessel that ran aground days ago off Cape Hatteras National Seashore remains helplessly stuck in the sand 50 yards from the beach, according to the National Park Service.
Its future is precarious: Boats that run aground on the Outer Banks are often broken apart by pounding wind and waves if left too long, experts say.
The U.S. Coast Guard reported the 72-foot scallop boat Ocean Pursuit became stuck Sunday morning and now sits precariously close to the navigational channel. That makes it a danger to mariners, the Coast Guard said in a Facebook post.
A helicopter lifted the crew to safety Sunday, the coast guard said in the post. Officials have not said why the vessel strayed too close to shore.
It will likely be towed back out to sea, the National Park Service said in its Cape Chronicle Newsletter.
The boat has become the source of much debate on social media, with Outer Banks visitors sharing photos and speculating on its uncertain fate.
“Won’t be the last eaten by the sea and sand,” Jane Hartley posted on Facebook.
“Could be on a shoal, an attempt to remove it could rip a giant hole in the hull,” Kevin Foley wrote on the park service’s Facebook page.
The Ocean Pursuit is one of two vessels that got stuck on the Outer Banks in the past five weeks, with the other a 78-foot trawler that grounded on the Shackleford Banks at Cape Lookout.
It hit bottom Feb. 7 after suffering engine trouble and the National Park Service told McClatchy News the owners were still working with an insurance company on its future.
In February 2019, the trawler Big John ran overturned off Cape Hatteras and was broken apart by waves as it sat in the water, McClatchy News reported last year. The debris washed ashore, forcing the park service to close a large section of beach for days.
The ocean off North Carolina is known as “the Graveyard of the Atlantic” due to the more than 2,000 shipwrecks recorded in the area, according to OuterBanks.com.
Experts blame treacherous currents off the Outer Banks.
“The warm waters of the northbound Gulf Stream meet the cold waters of the Arctic Current off Cape Hatteras at Diamond Shoals, and the entire coast is an area of shifting inlets, bays, and capes, representing a shipping hazard,” reports NCpedia.com.
This story was originally published March 5, 2020 at 12:24 PM with the headline "Bewildered Outer Banks beachgoers watch for days as stuck boat is hammered by waves."