... we've all been there, no ? Not on the reef perhaps but one wave, one wrong turn away, one lapse of concentration, one mistake, or for whatever reason one split second of attentiveness lost. Humbling. I should watch this clip every time before a cruise, it's so easy to get complacent out there. It can happen to anyone, anytime. Apparently this poor fellow had complete trust in the pilot who at the critical moment lost control of his boat and disappeared. I probably would not have made the attempt on that day, with that sea state, but then, we don't know the circumstances, and in the ariel there is another sailboat of considerable size safely tucked inside. We've run plenty of Cuts in the Bahamas on nasty days when something similar could have gone wrong.

This reminds me of a 55 foot Tayana I helped salvaged last year wrecked on Southampton Reef at Conception. It took us 3 days to get her holed hulls patched and off the reef, she'd been there over a week. In the end, the boat was in such disrepair, and with the approval of the Bahamian National Trust, we towed her out well past soundings, turned off the pumps and sunk her. It took about an hour for the water to splash over the rail, then in an instant the bow dipped and she torpedoed to the bottom, that's about as empty as I've felt in a long time. Until I saw this video. These folks clipped the very end of the reef, 5 miles from the island, they said their GPS was off, not sure about that. But whatever the reason, the bottom line is it can happen to any of us, at any time.

Very sad, but thanks for sharing Jon. Perhaps we need to see things like this every now & then to maintain some perspective ...

Cheers, John