“It was luck,” said Gene Eves, owner of the 25-foot sailboat that ended up as an undamaged beach ornament following the wind and rain storm on September 19.

“I was up until 3:30 a.m., just watching it move closer and closer to the sea wall,” said Eves of his boat. 

“If the boat had deviated slightly with the wind and tide, it was either going to hit some rocks or it may have slammed into the sea wall. Water and seaweed were splashing over the sea wall and onto the road. There was nothing I could do but watch,” he said.

Eves, of Southport Island, saw his boat travel about 300 feet, with its mooring block in tow, onto the Hendricks Head Beach on Southport. It came to rest as the tide ebbed, about eight feet from the sea wall. He was up again at 7 a.m. to assess the possible damage.

“I immediately began to formulate a plan on how to get the boat back into the water when I saw that it appeared to have sustained no damage,” Eves said. 

Eves, who owns two moorings off the beach, said he tied a rope to the beached boat and connected it to the second mooring. He expected that once the tide was high again, the boat would float again and he could get it off the beach and into deeper water. 

The incoming tide started rocking the boat nearly an hour and a half before high tide. 

“A couple of guys – I didn't get their names – helped me by knowing that we’d need to keep the incoming tide from ‘walking’ the boat further up the beach, and then by leaning against the boat as the tide lifted it off the sand. 

“The plan worked and I can't thank them enough,” Eves said.

“I also called (Southport Fire Chief and Selectman) Gerry Gamage to get his assessment of what I should do. He was a big help and even took my beached mooring block back to its previous position. Great thanks to him for support that went way beyond anything I could have expected,” Eves said.

Eves sailed his boat around Sheepscot Bay the next day, “thankfully without any excitement.”