The long strange saga of the boat that was abandoned in the Don Armeni Boat Launch parking lot has come to a close.
On Wednesday Nov. 5 Bankers Towing out of Renton came to lift the boat up with slings, and put it on a flatbed trailer to be taken away by Republic Services.
Briefly, the boat called the Gooey Duck, with only one working engine was originally purchased in Tacoma, and one of the men, Dan Hanes involved in the sale had intended to sail it to Lake Washington to work on it and bring it to full operational status. But fate had other plans. Stopping briefly off Me Kwa Mooks for an Orca pod, Hanes could not restart the engine. With no cell phone he waved at people on the beach who called the Seattle Fire Department. They showed up and towed him to a buoy. By then it was dark and he tried to get some rest. When he woke up the boat was taking on water. The Fire Dept was reached again and they pumped out the boat, and towed it to the Don Armeni Boat Launch. He had reached out to his friend Derrick who was in the hospital. The two met and traveled to Bellevue where they allegedly found a large boat trailer and stole it, bringing it to the boat launch. By then the boat had partially sunk again. They attempted to get it on the trailer and finally in the late evening hours got the boat out, in the process damaging the trailer. …