It looked a toy boat precariously perched on a breakwall near the mouth of the Oakland Estuary. It was a 51-foot cabin cruiser, a $500,000 yacht named "Gotcha".
"It was high tide, so the sea wall wasn't visible," Raffy Lopez, the owner of the boat, said.
This is one of the big holes in the "Gotcha" that was stuck on sea wall in the bay. pic.twitter.com/nBKI8yOozJ
— Laura Anthony (@LauraAnthony7) November 30, 2015
Lopez told ABC7 News it happened around noon Sunday, during an otherwise pleasurable cruise with his family on the bay.
"Well of course, your first thought is, 'Is the boat going to sink?' But it didn't. I called the Coast Guard, they came immediately," Lopez said.
With the Gotcha stuck, Lopez and his family had to be rescued by the Coast Guard. Monday morning, at low tide, he returned with Vessel Assist to retrieve the Gotcha, but it was no simple task.
"It was very stuck, so we hired a crane, we hired Vortex Construction, brought a barge with a big crane and lifted it off because we couldn't move it with our boats," Peter Miller with Vessel Assist said.
Once off the wall, the Gotcha made it to Svendsen's Boatworks under its own power.
"I'm going to get it fixed up and get it back out on the water as soon as possible," Lopez said.
That may take a while. The damage to the hull is expected to be in the $40,000-$70,000 range. It should put the Gotcha in dry-dock for at least a couple of months.
"Gotcha " gettin a tow... pic.twitter.com/K9aT9nlvtt
— Laura Anthony (@LauraAnthony7) November 30, 2015
"Gotcha" is heading into the Alameda estuary after being freed from its precarious perch in the bay. pic.twitter.com/NxKfHvNlwr
— Laura Anthony (@LauraAnthony7) November 30, 2015