Devices are used to jet water under the Second Chance shrimp boat in efforts to get the boat unstuck from shallow waters at the beach in Port Aransas on Sunday, Aug. 4. The boat drifted to the spot after suffering a series of problems while shrimping offshore late on the evening of Tuesday, July 30. The problems included a broken fuel line. Staff photo by Lee Harrison
The captain of the Second Chance shrimp boat recently talked to a South Jetty staff member about the events that led to the 56-foot vessel getting stuck in shallow waters in Port Aransas.
Despite many hours of efforts to free it, the boat remained wedged in the shallows at I.B. Magee Jr. Beach Park as this edition of the newspaper went to press on Tuesday, Aug. 6.
The Second Chance had been out on the water for three days when it got into trouble late on the night of Tuesday, July 30, said the captain, Phillip Lara, a Corpus Christi resident who also co-owns the boat.
Lara was on the boat with his rig man, Michael Carriker of Bolivar; Carriker’s girlfriend, Sylvia Duffy of Lake Charles, Louisiana; and two 80-pound American Staffordshire terriers named Fancy and Uno.
Lara keeps his boat, a restored 1977 model, docked in Aransas Pass when not shrimping.
They were out in the Gulf of Mexico about 7 miles from Packery Channel when the line to a 350-pound anchor snapped due to rough seas, Lara said.
Capt. Phillip Lara stands near his boat, the Second Chance, on Saturday, Aug. 3. The 56-foot vessel had been beached in Port Aransas since early Wednesday, July 31. Staff photo by Lee Harrison
As they drifted toward the beach in Port Aransas, the boat’s fuel line broke, resulting in a lost tank of fuel, he said.
A second anchor with a 25- foot chain and 450-foot rope was thrown out in an effort to keep the boat from drifting further, but it wouldn’t catch, Lara said.
Even though he didn’t have control of the boat for a while, Lara said he wasn’t afraid as the vessel drifted.
“Fear never went through me, but I was focused on the boat washing up on somebody’s beach, and I could not stop it,” said Lara, who has been shrimping since he was 8 years old.
Lara called the U.S. Coast Guard because he thought the vessel could hit Horace Caldwell Pier. He said he was “hoping they could bring an anchor or something,” because he did not want to be evacuated from his boat.
A rescue swimmer was lowered from a Coast Guard helicopter onto the beach at about 3 a.m. Wednesday.
The swimmer walked out to the boat and helped the three people on the vessel get off, one by one, Lara said.
They had to jump into the water, and the swimmer helped them walk to shore, he said. Waves knocked them around, but they got onto dry land OK. The swimmer also helped one of the dogs get to shore. The other dog swam and walked to land on its own.
The Second Chance has been stuck in shallow water ever since, attracting a lot of attention from beachgoers, many of whom have stopped and posed for selfies with it.
The captain and others have been trying to get the vessel off the beach by jetting water under the vessel to create a small channel that would allow the boat to float. They also have been timing their efforts for what they hope will be a high enough tide to float the boat.
Lara said he doesn’t know how much damage the vessel might have as a result of running aground. There was some shrimp on the boat when the mishap occurred, but it was all lost.
“This has been a nightmare,” Lara said.
Contact Lee Harrison at leeharrison1@ me.com. Contact Kathryn Cargo at reporter@portasouthjetty.com.
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