Ship's wake washes boat ashore
BY PHIL REYNOLDS SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

COURTESY PHOTO BY MIKE ROBERSON Unexpected company A ship's wake sent this boat and two fishermen into the backyard of a home at Turtle Cove on the Corpus Christi Ship Channel late Wednesday, Dec. 5.

They had a few flounder and had gone to the breakwater at the end of Turtle Cove to see if another of the flat fish was lurking on the sand bottom, when suddenly their boat was lifted and swept ashore.

Carl Reatzch, of San Antonio, and a Corpus Christi friend who asked not to be identified, had been fishing on the East Flats and decided to try for just one more flounder at about 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 5.

"We were pointed toward the shore," Reatzch recalled, "and this freighter went past outbound. It just sucked all the water out and then sent it back. It was about a six- or sevenfoot surge of water."

Reatzch said the water rise didn't hit like a wall, but was more gradual. He said the boat didn't overturn, but was deposited right-side-up on the patio of a home on Turtle Cove Private Drive.

"At one time I considered getting out and trying to hold the boat off the rocks," he said. "Then it hit us, and gave up on that."

Reatzch said neither he nor his fishing companion was hurt, except for sore backs, "but that could just be from being over 50 (years old)."

Mike Roberson of TowBoat U.S., who retrieved the boat Thursday morning, said it would have been easier to take a crane along the street and lift the boat up, but he decided against that course.

"The people who own the house weren't home, and those cranes can chop up a yard," he said. "I didnwant to do that without somebody being there."

Roberson said in the end, he laid timbers between the boat and the water and skidded it down to the edge of the water.

Scraping the boat along the concrete patio would have caused even more damage, he said.

Roberson said he'd never heard of another instance of a boat being shoved ashore by the wake of a passing ship. "If that happens, you'd think they'put a sign up there, warning boaters," Reatzch said.

While Reatzch said he didn't get the name of the vessel that was passing through the jetties, Ray Harrison of the Port of Corpus Christi HarbormasterOffice said the freighter Overseas Cathy left Cargo Dock 8 at about the right time to have been passing through Port Aransas at 10:30 p.m. He said the Overseas Cathy had draft of 22 feet when it left Corpus Christi.

Reatzch estimated the damage to the boat, including the salvage fees, at about $4,500. The damage will be covered by insurance, he said.

However, he said they did manage to save the fish they'd caught.

"We also saved a little sea turtle that was caught in a crack in the rocks," he said.

Harrison said while technically a vessel is responsible for its wake, it's unlikely any action would be taken because nobody was injured.

Raetzch, a former resident of Corpus Christi and Port Aransas, said he fishes here frequently.

"I love the city," he said.