The two men onboard are not injured when their boat strikes a rock and comes to rest in about 4 feet of water in the Hernando Beach Channel.
By DUANE BOURNE
Published May 12, 2004
HERNANDO BEACH - A shrimp boat carrying two sailors sank in the Hernando Beach Channel on Monday, causing a small fuel spill.
Neither of the men onboard, Capt. Dylan Rodriguez, 22, and his 58-year-old father Rodney Rodriguez, were injured in the accident. They were navigating into the channel between mile marker 85 and 86 during low tide when the boat struck a rock about 8 a.m. Monday and began taking on water, a sheriff's report said.
Dylan Rodriguez tried unsuccessfully to plug the hole and soon realized that the vessel was sinking quickly, the report stated.
As he steered the Rebel Too east toward the shoreline, water rushed to the rear of the boat to an unknown break in the transom, and sank the vessel.
The sheriff's marine unit found the boat resting at the bottom of the channel in about 4 feet of water. The boat's owner, Mark Rodriguez, 40, told authorities from the shore that the boat leaked a small amount of fuel but not its full load of 15 to 30 gallons of diesel.
George Bennett from Hernando County Waterways arrived and deployed an oil absorbent boom to soak up the spill.
Mark Rodriguez told authorities he would wait until low tide Monday afternoon to raise the vessel and transport it to a local marina.
