Captain Kathy St. Amant: 2014

The vessel Angelique sitting on the beach in Playa del Rey, CA June 2014
All photos © 2014 Kathryn St.Amant all rights reserved
unless Mitchell Family Photo in caption

Playa del Rey beach, Angelique on the beach
Two "Ballona Creek Yacht Club" boats at anchor

I am guilty. I have laughed at what we local sailors call the “Ballona Creek Yacht Club” boats. These are vessels that the less fortunate among us live in. The boats are at anchor of off the coast of Marina del Rey, CA. If you were to think of a family that lives in an old RV in the streets, then you get the picture of what is happening here. The difference is that when a family lives in an RV it sits very stable on the street and does not rock incessantly back and forth and up and down all day (unless there is, you know, activity inside that…….never mind). Also, you can drive the RV about and get yourself to the store in relative comfort.

People that choose to live in a small boat that does not have a home base dock must be, in my mind, desperate. When they are at anchor they are cut off from the rest of the world by waters that can be very unfriendly, have no electricity, little running water, or any other creature comforts we consider vital to our daily lives. Most of them have a ratty dinghy connected to their home that they take into shore for their daily chores or work. When the marina managers go home, we see many of these boats coming in to find an empty slip for the night so they can juice up their batteries and just have a comfortable night. That is if they are lucky enough to not get caught and tossed right back out to their anchor. Hopefully they are also emptying their holding tanks in the proper way so our beach remains healthful.

Many of the boats could be described as total junk as a vessel. I am sure not many would pass any inspections. Most of them out there right now are old sailboats that have had their masts removed. All you need to do is spend a few minutes watching these boats on their anchors rocking and swinging like crazy to come to the conclusion that no human should live out there. Yet, they choose to do so.

Angelique floating proud
Mitchell Family photo

Every once and a while there is a dreamer who wants to live on a boat and buys the best vessel they can afford without thinking about the related costs to keep it maintained and docked. For me, the cost to dock a boat is why I don’t have the boat of my dreams. The costs continue to escalate as the marina lessees are being forced to upgrade their facilities by the County of Los Angeles to build new docks and amenities. Yes the new facilities are beautiful, but they are an instant upgrade to unaffordability by the middle class yachtsman, let alone the dreamer who purchased way over their heads.

Going back to the family who bought the biggest vessel their money could buy… this particular family, Cosmo & Angelique Mitchell, purchased a steel hulled power boat that was 70+ feet long. They spent two years fixing it up and creating a pretty nice home for their family.

Galley upgrade
MItchell Family photo

States Cosmo Mitchell: “My boat has been our primary residence for the past 3 years and we saved her once from the scrap yard and we can do it again, she ain’t worth much, but she is ours. …and for the past five years (I) have been fighting congestive heart failure which has left me permanently disabled, and on a fixed income. The "Angelique" was our pension, our retirement, and our life savings all in one basket. She was our past our present and our future.: This might be buying over your head!

(All Mitchell photos and quotes are referenced from: http://bit.ly/1mkqeJx GiveForward.com the fundraising website for their cause)

So here the situation is created where the boat became one of the “Ballona Creek Yacht Club members”. In February 2014 a winter storm the likes of which we haven’t seen in years rolled into Southern California. It was the second of two quick passing heavy hitting storms to hit the area. Following is the high surf advisory put out by the National Weather Service on the storm:

Surf Advisory

A high surf advisory remains in effect through Sunday, with waves 4 to 7 feet expected at many local beaches on Friday and sets of 8 to 12 feet and as high as 15 feet during the peak Saturday, according to NWS. The most threatened locations include low-lying areas near Venice Beach and Long Beach. High surf will create strong and dangerous rip currents in the surf zone as well as waves that can suddenly wash people off of beaches and rocks.

A satellite image of the storm that was responsible as it rolled into Southern California
Courtesy of NOAA

I don’t know about you, but if I was sitting on my hook off of a lee shore in my boat with this advisory, I would not be anywhere near the shoreline. I wonder if there was anyone paying attention to weather advisories?

Not surprising to most of us, the anchor chain on Angelique broke during the maelstrom. Here is a shot of the chain in June, 4 months later. I am sure the deteriorated condition of the chain did not happen in just 4 months.

Angelique's chain four months later

They ran out of fuel trying to keep the boat off of the beach so the boat ran aground right next to the breakwater of Marina del Rey.

Mitchell Family photo of Angelique freshly on the beach

Now, as a captain, I have many things I could say about this. One… the marina entrance was right there and it would not take much fuel to get inside. They would not have been turned away in an emergency. It makes me wonder how much fuel was on board. Going back to the fact that they were at anchor due to lack of funds also makes one wonder about owning a vessel that costs hundreds of dollars just to fire it up, but that is another rant. I was told by Angelique (the Angelique, not the boat!) that this was their dream. OK, safety of the family aside, maybe I could understand that, well maybe not. Another thought would be that they were just too far inside the surf line to make it to safety no matter how much fuel they had. They don’t admit that, but I don't think I would either.

This LA County Lifeguard says the Mitchells come to the boat every day.

I am writing this in June, 2014, the boat went aground in February. I went down to the beach to photograph the wreck on the beach before it gets removed and met Angelique and her son. The family members were sitting on the foredeck watching the surf holding an American Flag when I was walking down to the boat. Her son came out of the cabin holding a pair of wet and sandy shoes and handed them to his mother. She then told me and a friend their story. All of a sudden this was not just a “Ballona Yacht Club” vessel or a wreck on the beach for me to play with. It was now a story of passion, heartache and reality. The awful reality ballooned when the boat hit the sand and it became an open resource to thieves. “We lost everything to looters, our rooms were ransacked, anything of value was taken. Now what belongings we have left are buried under sand.” (Cosmo Mitchell) They also lost their beloved cat. There is a sign painted on the boat asking why someone had to steal their rusty shovels. Angelique told me they are trying to dig out the boat. Now they can't even do that.

Cosmo Mitchell stated that their insurance company gave them a pretty cold response (well ummmmm.... yeah!). The couple is trying to raise some funds to get the Angelique off the beach themselves and restore the beach and the boat to their original states. Their time is coming to an end as the vessel has been declared a public nuisance and public danger. The Mitchell’s have been told they will be billed $250,000 for the cutting up and removal of the Angelique by way of land. They, on the other hand, think they can get it off the beach themselves by digging it out and refloating it for $5000. With the help of anyone and everyone digging… and there is quite a bit of digging. I honestly don't think shovels will do the trick, as it is totally buried inside and out. As we all know from playing in the beach sand, as soon as you get a hole dug out, more sand pours in. The boat is in the surfline as well and that means constant change. They believe the steel hull is intact (it is also full of saltwater mixed with the sand). They have received a very short extension of time to give it a try.

This piece of shoreline is one that sees quite a few wrecks up on the beach and as sad as it is to say, the stories are very similar. The boats are at anchor in the area, their anchors fail and then the boats go up on the beach. The boats stay on the beach for extended periods because it is the owner’s responsibility to remove them. The owner’s, of course, do not have enough money to do this. The county then has to go through all the legal hoops, including environmental studies, before they can remove fuels, liquids and the vessel. Then they charge the owner a massive dollar amount for cutting up the boat and dragging it out over the beach (after all, getting bulldozers and cranes moved onto the beach is not cheap!). The charges are understandable. why should we shoulder the burden of boaters who won’t consider the consequences?

Here is my photo essay on the wreck of the Angelique as she stood on
June 17^th, 2014 along with few shots of before from the Mitchells.
Now she lies buried, looted, broken, and sad.

This image shows the pile of sand the family has created as they begin
digging out their home. GiveForward.com is the fund raising website.
The little pile is a woeful amount of sand in comparison
to what they have to remove!