On a sunny morning this week, Vincent Bowhers stood on the Willoughby Boat Ramp in Norfolk, below bustling traffic on the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel.
Right along the dock a mast rose out of the water, the only part of a boat that is not yet submerged. Bowhers pointed out other abandoned boats farther out in the water and on the horizon in nearly every direction.
“We are looking at an array of sunken vessels,” said Bowhers, restoration coordinator for Lynnhaven River Now.
For the past few years, the Virginia Beach nonprofit has spearheaded a project to identify abandoned boats like these throughout coastal Virginia and figure out how to get rid of them…