JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A sailboat is stranded on Jacksonville Beach shores, and its captain refuses to leave the vessel's side after he says it lost power, forcing him to swim to shore on Monday.
Anyone who walked on the beach off 14TH Ave. N. Tuesday could see Luke Rehberg and his 40-foot sailboat near the water.
The sailboat is also his home. He slept there Monday night.
"I have to maintain a vigilance on the ship,” he said. “There are looters and people that come in the night. I am tied to this ship until I can get her offshore."
Like thousands of others, Rehberg visited Jacksonville Beach for the Sea and Sky Airshow over the weekend.
The captain and his ship hit tough waters around 4 p.m. Monday.
"The weather changed,” he said. “I pulled anchor and was going in and the engine failed."
He said the Aquilone lost power about a quarter mile out from the shore. His anchor failed, too.
"Once I got to the breakers, it became an unsafe situation, and I got the paddleboard and swam to shore," he said.
The Coast Guard said it’s the owners responsibility to move the boat. Rehberg said the agency confirmed fluids from the boat weren't contaminating the beach and that he wasn't hurt.
Rehberg said it will cost him $10,000 to repair the boat and $10,000 to have the boat removed, but he doesn’t have that money.
Instead, he said he'll have to wait for the right conditions.
"[I need] this surf to lay down, and I need a king tide, which is coming with the moon this weekend, so to have as much water as possible and a preferable wind," he said.
Rehberg said he's thankful for the kindess of strangers, including staff from the Hampton Inn. The hotel, near where the boat is, offered him a free two-night stay.
He told First Coast News he may use the shower but can't leave his boat overnight.
"I'm alive, and my ship is damaged but alive, and if you don't have big risks, you don't have big gains."