Pensacola Beach in Florida was the scene of something extremely unusual last month: a shipwreck.
A 45-foot, rickety sailboat washed up on shore on June 18, drawing the attention of many nearby residents who began calling it the “ghost ship.”
For people like Francine Farrar, 46, who was one of the first to see the ship arrive, it created mystery and intrigue.
But for its owner, Michael Barlow, 39, the boat had a name: Lady Catherine III. And more importantly, he had spent much of his life savings on buying the now-destroyed ship.
He invested $80,000 in a sailboat with the intention of “exploring the world” only to later have to abandon ship and enlist the Coast Guard in a daring rescue operation.
Pictured: The “ghost ship” washed ashore off Pensacola Beach in June, weeks after its captain and owner, Michael Barlow, had to be rescued by the Coast Guard.
That’s how the empty Lady Catherine, purchased by Barlow in May, would eventually wash up on the sandy shores of the Florida Panhandle, but the full story is much longer and more complicated than that.
It all started with Barlow’s dream of living a freer, more fulfilling life with his wife and 9-year-old son.
“We were just going to explore the world,” Barlow said. NBC 6 South Florida.
“We are normal people. We have a normal economy, very, very basic. And this is the only way I could take my son and show him that there is a whole world out there beyond what is in the United States,” she said.
Just over a month ago, Barlow and his friend set out on an 884-mile journey from Fort Pierce, Florida, back to Texas, where he was ready to close his excavation business and sell his worldly possessions to finance his new lifestyle.
They studied weather patterns for days before officially setting out, WEAR News reported, concluding that “the prognosis was beautiful.”
“We had 15 to 20 knots behind us all the way back to Texas,” Barlow said.
Pictured: Michael Barlow stands in front of Lady Catherine sometime in late May, when he purchased the boat.
Lady Catherine is docked in Fort Pierce and gleaming with a heavy coat of blue paint.
Barlow is at the wheel of his new $80,000 boat. Little did he know that within weeks it would fall apart.
A week after Barlow’s maiden voyage with Lady Catherine, the initially perfect sailing conditions changed dramatically.
“The sea started to get rough, the wind was whipping us around 30 to 40 knots,” Barlow said. “It stayed like that for the next two days.”
A series of storms brought waves crashing against the hull and strong winds tearing at the sails, but Barlow stood firm.
First of all.
“When it started to get crazy, I knew the boat could handle it and we just did it.”
While battling for three days against terrible weather that was slowly damaging his boat, he was able to stay in touch with his family through a Garmin tracker.
They knew their exact position all along, one of the reasons Barlow would eventually emerge alive from this ordeal.
By the end, the ship was too damaged to continue. And what was worse, his faithful crewmate was beginning to freeze to death.
“The autopilot broke during the first storm, so we had to drive manually for three days,” Barlow told WEAR News.
‘(My friend) had all the symptoms of hypothermia and he went down and passed out. He was unconscious the whole time.
Video from Coast Guard helicopters captures the sorry state of the Lady Catherine, stranded in the Gulf of Mexico
When the Coast Guard arrived in the evening, the boat was rocking up and down in the heavy waves, with its main sail almost completely torn away.
A Coast Guard rescuer is seen boarding the wrecked ship.
“I was just sitting there watching the waves build up, so I started calling on the radio to go over procedures, to see if there was anyone around who could help us. No one was answering.”
Just when he thought all hope was lost, he pressed the SOS button on his Garmin, which put him in direct contact with the Coast Guard in New Orleans.
Rescuers would later say that Barlow and his friend were picked up on June 1 about 190 miles south of Panama City, Florida.
Over the radio, a Coast Guard member told Barlow that he was “about to get hit again” and that they were three hours away from rescuing them.
But he was told he would have to make a sacrifice: his $80,000 boat or his life.
“We can come get you right now, but you have to abandon ship,” Barlow said, recalling what the Coast Guard told him. “You’re definitely risking your life if you stay.”
Barlow decided to survive and flee his doomed ship.
Richard Hoefle, the rescue swimmer aboard the helicopters dispatched to Barlow’s location, told WEAR News they were dodging storms on all sides during their journey over the Gulf.
And when they got there, it was completely dark.
A night vision video posted on Facebook by the Coast Guard shows the boat bobbing up and down in the rough waves, with its main sail almost completely torn away.
The same video also shows the harrowing rescue of the two men, in which Hoefle jumped from the helicopter directly into the water.
“It was like a movie,” Barlow said. “Bro jumped out of a helicopter into the middle of a raging sea and swam out to us with just his snorkel gear on.”
While this was no easy task for Hoefle, who said he felt dizzy just looking at the two men in the ocean, he displayed unwavering confidence throughout the rescue.
“We’re the Coast Guard, we’re the best in the world at this,” Hoefle said. “You can see the relief when they see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
The dramatic video shows Barlow and his friend being lifted into the sky before being flown back to Panama City.
Barlow or his friend is seen being hoisted in a metal contraption by Coast Guard helicopters.
For weeks, no one knew for sure where the Lady Catherine was. But when Pensacola residents began posting images of the wrecked ship on social media, Barlow was able to find her.
“I knew it was her,” he said.
Farrar, one of the people who saw the ship on the shore, noticed that people were stealing things from it.
So, she reached out to Barlow via social media and helped him in any way she could.
“I wanted someone to help me. So I went and got a lock,” he said, adding that he kept watch on the boat until Barlow arrived in Pensacola.
Unfortunately, by the time he got there, all his valuables had already been looted.
Barlow will have to face more unfortunate problems in the coming weeks now that state authorities know where his ship is.
As the owner of what authorities are calling an “abandoned vessel,” he needs to get it off the beach or possibly face a criminal charge, punishable by a $5,000 fine or prison time, NBC reported.
Barlow is pictured with the Coast Guard officers who saved his life.
“Yes, our officers have been in contact with Mr. Barlow,” Faith Fawn, a spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said in a statement. “He has 30 days from the date the boating violation citation was issued to bring his vessel into compliance.”
Their options are to pay $20,000 to have the Lady Catherine taken into dry dock for repairs that would likely cost more than the ship’s initial value.
Or he said he could pay a lump sum of $28,000 to have it taken away and demolished.
“If we’re talking about business figures, it would make more sense to scrap the ship,” Barlow said. “That’s the simple truth.”
Barlow has also set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for the move and possible repairs to the boat.
“The removal will be a huge task, as will the repairs. We put everything we had into this, abandoned our home and bet everything. Now it’s washed up on the shore and I don’t know what else to do,” she wrote in the post.
So far, the campaign has raised over $9,000, quickly approaching its $10,000 goal.
Despite this tragedy, Barlow remains an aspiring sailor, undaunted by his near-death experience in the Gulf or the financial ruin he faces.
“This hasn’t made me lose faith in sailing. I love the ocean and I respect it. It’s relentless and beautiful at the same time,” he said.
(tags to translate)dailymail