- May 20, 2004
- 1,721
- 151
- Detector(s) used
- Minelab Excal 1000
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
It was dark on the Caribbean the night of Feb. 26, 2008. But he could feel the waves building rapidly as a fierce wind seemed to come out of nowhere.
Before long, the 65-foot Treasure Seeker was struggling against 22-foot waves, rolling port to starboard at 70-degree angles, wave after wave.
So violent was the movement, Hixon said, the rudder poked out of the water and he could hear the air being sucked beneath the boat.
"They were big, slow rolling monsters, not that fast, but consistent."
They were about a day and a half from St. Thomas, their destination, when they were pounded by rough seas.
"We were like, let's get out of here, let's go," Tripp recalled.
He got on the radio and called mayday. He also activated his Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon EPIRB, a device that emits a distress signal and a GPS location. By this time, the boat was just south of the Turks and Caicos Islands and east of Great Inagua, Bahamas.
All five people on board the pirate ship got into a dinghy they tied up to the pirate boat and waited in their life jackets."That's the biggest mistake people make," Tripp Hixon said. "You can't leave the boat or no one will find you."
As they sat in the dinghy, there wasn't much talk. They watched their dreams sink slowly into the waves.
"We watched that boat go down, foot by foot," Tripp Hixon said.
When the Juliet arrived, the tourists who were diverted from their dive trip began snapping photos of the sinking pirate ship and the five men, four of them over 60, grimy, salty and stunned.
A Coast Guard helicopter arrived and asked the Hixons if they wanted to try to save the boat. But there was no hope for the Treasure Seeker.
"It went down, bow first, swoosh," Tripp Hixon recalled.
Complete storey
http://www.sptimes.com/2008/03/09/Neighborhoodtimes/Mock_pirate_ship_sink.shtml
Before long, the 65-foot Treasure Seeker was struggling against 22-foot waves, rolling port to starboard at 70-degree angles, wave after wave.
So violent was the movement, Hixon said, the rudder poked out of the water and he could hear the air being sucked beneath the boat.
"They were big, slow rolling monsters, not that fast, but consistent."
They were about a day and a half from St. Thomas, their destination, when they were pounded by rough seas.
"We were like, let's get out of here, let's go," Tripp recalled.
He got on the radio and called mayday. He also activated his Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon EPIRB, a device that emits a distress signal and a GPS location. By this time, the boat was just south of the Turks and Caicos Islands and east of Great Inagua, Bahamas.
All five people on board the pirate ship got into a dinghy they tied up to the pirate boat and waited in their life jackets."That's the biggest mistake people make," Tripp Hixon said. "You can't leave the boat or no one will find you."
As they sat in the dinghy, there wasn't much talk. They watched their dreams sink slowly into the waves.
"We watched that boat go down, foot by foot," Tripp Hixon said.
When the Juliet arrived, the tourists who were diverted from their dive trip began snapping photos of the sinking pirate ship and the five men, four of them over 60, grimy, salty and stunned.
A Coast Guard helicopter arrived and asked the Hixons if they wanted to try to save the boat. But there was no hope for the Treasure Seeker.
"It went down, bow first, swoosh," Tripp Hixon recalled.
Complete storey
http://www.sptimes.com/2008/03/09/Neighborhoodtimes/Mock_pirate_ship_sink.shtml
