Crashing his boat, the Shangra Lee, onto the rocks and reef Saturday at Savana Island off the west end of St. Thomas has made Hugo de la Uz, 49, of Puerto Rico appreciate how precious life is and how little material things count. His boat was a total loss but he, his two children and three others came through without “a scratch.”
“Even though we had a serious accident, we’re still happy as a family,” de la Uz said Tuesday.
He said that he and the group are now vacationing in Culebra.
De la Uz and the five passengers were able to get some belongings off the 50-foot Shangra Lee, but the captain and owner said he had to make do with a mismatched set of his shoes he found floating in the water. He said he was able to save his two cell phones and his iPad.
De la Uz, who said he owns a computer-related company in Puerto Rico, was traveling at night from San Juan to Crown Bay, St. Thomas, in seven to nine foot waves. He said after 11 hours at sea, the sun came up, the seas calmed to two feet, and he fell asleep until the boat hit the rocks.
“It was human error. The fact I fell asleep caused the accident,” he said.
He said he it’s not unusual for him to make the trip between Puerto Rico and St. Thomas at night because the boat is equipped for night travel.
“It’s not dangerous to travel at night,” he said.
De la Uz said he tried to get the Shangra Lee off the rocks using the engines but was not able to do so. He said his Zodiac inflatable dinghy also went on the rocks, and he had to jump overboard to save the boat.
By then the seas had picked up, making the whole situation very dangerous, he said.
“It was really scary,” he said.
He and his son were able to get into the dinghy but he said it was too dangerous to try to get the other four passengers off the Shangra Lee. They included his daughter, 9, his daughter’s mother, his son’s 17-year-old girlfriend, and a friend of his daughter’s mother.
According to de la Uz, he called the St. Thomas-based Sea Tow and the U.S. Coast Guard, which both responded. Sea Tow rescued the four passengers who remained on the Shangra Lee. De la Uz said it was a dangerous situation for Sea Tow but with the boat sinking, there was no other option.
“It was do or die,” he said.
He said he met Sea Tow at the Crown Bay dock, and with permission from the Coast Guard, returned to Puerto Rico. He said he also filled out the necessary forms with the Planning and Natural Resources Department and the Coast Guard, including those for an oil pollution spill. De la Uz said the oil that spilled from the Shangra Lee has dissipated.
He said the boat is not insured but he said he plans to buy another one.
De la Uz said he’s been boating his whole life, completed safe boating course and holds a license from the Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources to “drive his own boat.”
He said because he belongs to Sea Tow, a marine assistance company similar to AAA for automobiles, he doesn’t face a bill from the St. Thomas-based Sea Tow. However, Alan Wentworth, who owns the St. Thomas Sea Tow franchise, said he hadn’t confirmed that de la Uz was a member.
Additionally Wentworth said Sea Tow membership doesn’t cover picking up debris and saving people from a sinking boat. He said it covers tows, jumpstarts, fuel drops, minor net rope entanglements and soft groundings on places like beaches and sand bars.
De la Uz said DPNR could bill him for the reef cleanup. He said there are only pieces of the Shangra Lee remaining on the reef.
