A 121-foot yacht named "Lovebug" capsized near the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland over the weekend, prompting a wild rescue and now a salvage mission to get the ship out of the water.
The U.S. Coast Guard said the ship ran aground Saturday afternoon roughly a half-mile offshore between Beverly Beach and Curtis Point. Five people on board were safely recovered by a good Samaritan and a tow boat.
Trevor Hardman, owner of Tour Boat Annapolis, was one of the first on the scene. He said the boat was rapidly taking on water.
"As we tried to figure out what part of the boat we were looking at, we realized it slowly started to list and lean over to one side," Hardman told WJZ-TV. "I would say within four to five minutes the boat was consumed and the captain had made the determination that they needed to abandon ship."
A towboat crew pulled two people from the water while the yacht's tender boat rescued two additional people from the water. Hardman then helped rescue the captain, the last one on board. No one was injured.
While the Coast Guard reported that the ship "ran aground," Hardman said the captain intentionally ran it into shallow water to prevent it from sinking. He said he could hear the ship's high water alarms going off as he approached the scene.
"In the moment, I was like did you run aground? He was like, 'No, but I was headed this way. We were taking on water,'" Hardman told WJZ-TV. "Boats of that size have alarms that tell you when there's water inside the boat. They were ear piercing to be able to hear those high-water alarms going off."
According to WJZ-TV, the Lovebug "docks at the Annapolis Yacht Club and is known to many boaters in the area. It charters for $125,000 a week." Boat International reported that the yacht was built in 2010 under the name "Anastasia M" and was last sold in 2021 for just shy of $8 million.
The boat remains on its side in shallow water. Reports indicate crews are planning to remove it once a salvage plan is approved. Containment boons have been installed around the boat, though no pollution has been reported thus far.
It's not clear what caused the ship to tip over and start taking on water. The extent of damage is also unknown.