Vista Star Collision with Superior Breakwater and Current Status of the Boat
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- čas přidán 12. 09. 2024
- On Saturday (July 20th) at about 10:45 at night the Vista Star attempted to exit the Superior Entry on her standard late night weekend harbor tour, or “the booze cruise” as her crew calls it due to the prevalent use of the onboard bar typically seen during this trip. During the trip through the harbor, wind increased and waves picked up significantly to about 5ft, much larger than the Vista is safely capable of handling. The Vista Star departed the Superior Entry onto Lake Superior then quickly turned around after realizing it would be too rough for them to cut across the lake to the Canal like usual. While making the turn, she caught the wind and waves to her side, which pushed her into the breakwater rocks on the Minnesota side of the channel, and listing the boat to the side, hospitalizing one person and leaving other minor injuries. 84 passengers and crew were on board at the time.
She issued a distress call which was answered by the Coast Guard and Duluth Fire Department/Rescue Team. The injured passengers were evacuated by ambulance while the boat itself was pulled off the rocks and was able to sail herself safely to her dock. The incident has been widely publicized in the news and hyped up on CZcams, but has remained a fairly quiet affair within the city itself.
The next day the Coast Guard ran inspections of the boat and declared her seaworthy, granted a little banged up. After talking to her crew she’s sitting out today (Monday July 22nd), taking advantage of the break to deep clean and touch up the vessel, before she returns to service tomorrow. In the meantime the smaller Vista Queen has taken over tour routes for yesterday and today. While the incident was bad, it could have been FAR worse, colliding with rocks is no small deal. Many vessels have sunk that way. They were extremely lucky to get off with a minor dent and a few scratches!
Also included in the video is the Vista Star and Queen entering the Canal together roughly 24 hours before the accident. This was the first time I’d ever seen the two boats arrive under the bridge together, it is a surprisingly rare occurrence!
Saw a report on this on CZcams over the weekend. Good report.
Thanks!
Thanks for the update Jonathan
@@micheller2029 no problem!
Glad it turned out as good as it did. We've been having extremely volatile weather in Southern Ontario the last couple weeks, with humidex Temps into the mid 40s Celsius and sudden violent storms with downpours lasting from a few mins to an hour or more. If you're getting similar conditions up there I could see how it turned so quickly. But you would think the Weather service and any Captain would be aware of the possibility. I hadn't heard about this until your video, Jon.
@@danielmorris3687 It did change very quickly, but about a half hour earlier. Granted it’s at least an hour’s sail out to Wis Point but the Viking Polaris was leaving at the same time and the bridge usually gives out weather reports to outgoing ships, they should have known
Interesting... would like to see the captain interviewed and more public info given to ensure safety for tourists and community, and awareness of weather patterns going on. We saw the Vista Star returning quickly away from some big waves previously to this as well.
Yeah the first time was kind of funny, this time obviously not so much! Vista’s usually pretty good about being careful with weather so not sure what’s going on there
@@jonathanellsworth21 I would think, as Duluth is known for quick changes in the weather. 🤔
@@DressyBessie yes it definitely is known for that
Yeah, saw her on the Wisconsin Point Cam going out and thought the Lake looked a little too rough by the way she was pitching. Wasn't long after heard about the Coast Guard being called. Checked past track on AIS and you can see she is turned away from break wall but was literally being carried by the waves and wind into the break wall. Really question what weather report and/or Lake conditions report they had received prior to departure.
@@skycvg yeah not sure what was going on there
I read that it was a private wedding party cruise.
@@micheller2029 that could be as well, wasn’t in any of the reports I read and nor are late night weekend trips out there uncommon for Vista Star, but could easily be. Have a source for that? That would suck if it were
Did the captain have a urinalysis?
@@ralphwatten2426 I’m sure they did, it’s standard procedure for commercial drivers after an incident so I’m sure it’s similar for maritime as well. As for what the results were I couldn’t find them, nor do I care to speculate just because of the potential to cause harm by doing so
Hi Jonathan! I hope you're well. I'm reaching out on behalf of Daily Mail. We're covering this story and would love to feature your video on our website/social/app/video player, will full credit back to you. Please let me know if this is of interest when you have the chance. Thanks! FG
@@nyvideoteam9882 lol, goodness 😂 I guess it depends on the context of the story, Vista Fleet is a key part of Duluth as a city, and if the story is a fair report then by all means go ahead, but if it’s a story that’s highly critical and hyped then I’d rather not participate in that, I tend to have a very high opinion of them regardless of these events.
You can email me at jonathanellsworth0721@gmail.com
Suspended the Captain for a period of time. Learn how to drive a boat !! This should not be happening
@@chrisstart4714 at the moment we don’t know exactly what happened behind the scenes so not going to lay blame but yeah they should have been more careful and not even put themselves in that situation
Jump to conclusions much?