Rafael Lopez and his family were aboard his 51-foot Sea Ray Sundancer, heading out to Oakland, California’s outer harbor for a nice Sunday dinner.
Those plans were canceled when Lopez mistakenly left the navigable channel and became stuck on a breakwater that was just beneath the surface at high tide.
“It’s a little embarrassing, yeah,” he told KPIX News.
The Nov. 29 accident made Lopez a local celebrity, but he faced the bad news in stand-up fashion, saying the important thing is that no one was hurt. A local tow firm used a floating crane to lift the yacht from the seawall.
The boat sustained substantial hull damage on its rocky perch and is at a yard facing repairs that are expected to be in the $40,000 to $70,000 range, Lopez said.
“I’m not coming back to the Oakland Estuary, not for a long time,” he said.
