Residents of Sidney got up and out to pick up debris from the waterfront at Tulista Park on Sunday (Nov. 17) morning.
The debris was from a boat that had cut loose from the buoy where it was moored, causing it to crash onto the rocky shores of the park.
The boat first caught the attention of residents in October prompting a post on This is Sidney, a Facebook community page, on Nov. 4, asking if anyone had information about the abandoned vessel.
Community members were quick to reply saying it belonged to a man who could not afford moorage.
In fact, the man set up a GoFundMe to help with the removal, the cost of which is estimated at $65,000; money he didn't have.
“Ayuda mi barco se estrello en las rocas y perdi todo” (Help, my boat crashed on the rocks and I lost everything), he posted on the fundraising page created on Oct. 21. The last donation was made 26 days ago, with $375 raised.
Clay Frith, who saw the post on Facebook, met the boat owner several weeks ago. "A nice young guy from Mexico who can hardly speak English," he said.
“When I saw the boat, I wondered if it’s ever gonna stay moored. And sure enough, the boat came off and crashed.”
Frith said it’s been sitting on the water for about a month, so he created a Facebook post on the Sidney community page and suggested getting some people together to cut it up and get it out of the water.
“I got some nasty messages telling me to mind my own business and I’ll probably get sued by the government. That upset me, so I walked away from it for a week,” he said.
Some concerned residents also reached out to local authorities but have initially gotten tentative answers on whose jurisdiction it is to retrieve the boat from the water.
On Nov. 14, the Town of Sidney posted a community update saying the Coast Guard is taking responsibility for removing the vessel and debris.
Taking matters into his own hands
Two windstorms later, the boat had broken into pieces, parts scattered on the water.
Realizing the boat batteries and possibly the fuel tank were still in the water and conscious of the effect they may have on the natural ecosystem along the shores of Tulista Park, Frith decided to take matters into his own hands.
On Saturday (Nov. 16) he started pulling debris out of the water and called on members of the Facebook community page to come and join in the cleanup.
84-year-old Newton Hockey was the first to respond and the two began what Frith jokingly calls, the “Beer Budget Disaster Team” which slowly grew as more people came to help out.
“We had about 10 people helping us,” Hockey said. A fellow came with a truck and trailer, Mounties came out to see what we were doing and they helped and arranged for us to dump the debris in the town work yard.”
Frith has been posting updates on the Sidney Facebook page since the cleanup started.
On Sunday morning, more people came to help including Kelly Spencer who arrived with a big truck joining at least 30 other volunteers on-site, pulling, lifting and loading debris onto the trucks.
Some brought coffee, hot chocolate and doughnuts. Families, young kids in tow, also helped wheelbarrow debris to the trucks.
"In this day and age, it seems silly to me that a crane truck couldn't just have lifted it out of the water the day it happened," says Spencer. "Coast Guard should have decided to deal with it first while it was still in one piece and worry about boat fines and other matters later."
All the volunteers on-site echoed the same sentiments.
A few more parts left
Much of the boat was retrieved, broken pieces and all, with only the bottom of the hull, engine, drive shaft and propeller still in the water.
Before the weekend was over, they managed to clear truckloads of debris from the water, about eight tonnes in total.
Keeping his sense of humour amid the “messy” affair, Frith is hoping the bomb cyclone hitting Vancouver Island on Tuesday, will “finish busting up the remaining parts for the Beer Budget Disaster Team.”
“I don’t want to disparage the powers that be, but this is our community and we care enough to get it done, together,” he said.
