HONOLULU — A yacht-sized passenger boat ran aground in the high surf off a Hawaii beach over the weekend, with the vessel precariously riding a set of powerful waves and appearing to nearly flip on its side before coming to rest.
KHON-TV reported that the events occurred around 8 a.m. Saturday when the swells were peaking and the tide was bottoming out.
Two crew members were on the 60-foot (18 meter) vessel, named Discovery, when it ran aground near Honolulu’s Kewalo Basin Harbor, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a statement.
The boat’s fuel, oil and batteries were removed, preventing the threat of pollution, the Coast Guard said. A company planned to tow the boat away at high tide Sunday afternoon.
The grounding was captured on video from various vantage points as onlookers screamed and the Discovery careened down a swell on its side before temporarily righting itself in the surf.
Surf photographer Ramon Brockington told the television station that the Discovery got caught in a series of waves.
“They could not get over that wave,” he said. “And it grabbed the nose of the boat, turned it to the left, and they started listing. And it pushed them onto the dry reef.”
Brockington said it was “unreal.”
“It almost looked like it was going to flip, but they corrected,” he said. “And the ship was surfing. I’ve never seen that before — a boat of that caliber, size.”
The Discovery eventually drifted against a concrete wall that lines the shore.
An email seeking comment was sent Sunday to Atlantis Adventures, which owns the Discovery. The company told KHON on Saturday that the two experienced crew members aboard the boat were not injured.
“We are working closely with all government regulatory agencies to have the shuttle boat safely removed from where it was grounded, towed back to its pier location and thoroughly inspected before it is returned to service,” Atlantis Adventures told the station.