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Coast Guard officials are still working on a plan to salvage a 79-foot fishing boat that’s been stranded on a reef off Waikiki’s Kaimana Beach for almost a month, even as people endanger themselves by sneaking onto the leaking wreckage at night.
“They are putting themselves at risk,” said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Scott Carr. “They are trespassing. That is just not good, safe, responsible behavior. … There are some gaps between the side of the vessel and the reef. If somebody were to fall into that gap and a swell comes, you could be pinned, you could be killed, you could be seriously injured. We don’t want that to happen.”
He called the Pacific Paradise “an eyesore and a nuisance. We are asking for the community’s patience as we work through this process.”
Carr declined to pinpoint when a plan might come together to remove the boat.
“There’s work going on every day to come up with the best salvage plan possible,” Carr said. “There are companies that are bidding on the process and bringing in plans to the Coast Guard and to the owner, the entity that is the responsible party. This is going to take some time.”
The boat arrived from Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and Kiribati with 19 foreign men on board — and a captain who officials say was the only U.S. citizen.
Since it ran aground 400 yards from shore just before midnight Oct. 10, the Pacific Paradise has been leeching “petroleum-based products” from 1,500 gallons of originally stored materials, Carr said.
He said “lube oils and diesel fuel have a fairly high evaporation rate … but I don’t recommend swimming near it.”
Despite a 500-yard security zone, people continue to enter the area, Carr said.
On Oct. 14 a salvage company was preparing to tow the Pacific Paradise when the boat caught fire, sending up flames and plumes of black smoke as workers jumped overboard. Lifeguards rescued seven people.
The day before, the same salvage company tried to tow the boat during high tide, but the towlines snapped. The company reattached the lines and was able to tow the vessel about 50 yards before the tide went out.
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