Residents around Bimini Basin upset over city’s handling of derelict boat

Reporter: Michael Hudak Writer: Matthew Seaver
Published: Updated:
Boat tipped over in Bimini Basin. (Credit: WINK News Drone)

A boat that has been a nuisance to people living around Bimini Basin in Cape Coral has become a problem again. The blame is being deflected because this time, taking the nautical nuisance and shooting it out into the water didn’t solve the problem.

Diane Mazarakis sees the boat every day. “How can you in good conscience put this floating bomb just waiting for us to have to get up during a storm,” said Mazarakis.

She is not happy with the way the city has been handling the situation. “We were just stunned. That it could be so foolish, that the city could be so foolish,” said Mazarakis.

The tipped-over boat has brought people to their tipping point.

“Get rid of that sailboat! It is an imminent danger to personal property and personal harm to the people here, and the city just refuses to move it,” said Carl Marullo of Cape Coral.

On March 22, WINK News was at Bimini Basin when the derelict boat was hanging at a 45-degree angle over a canal. A Cape Coral police marine unit eventually got it upright and towed it back into the basin.

New WINK News drone video makes it clear; that didn’t work.

“I am absolutely stunned that this could happen in Cape Coral, that we could watch a boat potentially polluting in the basin where the dolphins are swimming, that they were in America and that this is happening,” said Mazarakis.

Don Spurr invited WINK News reporter Michael Hudak on his boat for a talk. He brought out a letter from a condo association on the basin to its representative on the Cape Coral City Council.

“We feel that the government is just kicking the can down the road and not just getting this boat out of here,” said Marullo.

The letter says people complained for two months, and “Not until WINK News came to report on the situation did the city come to right the boat.”

That didn’t fix the problem. The tipped-over boat is now keeping residents up at night.

“It does! In fact, keeping me up at night,” said Spurr.

One night, just after midnight, a storm blew another boat out of its anchored position, and it crashed into the nearby dock.

“We had to fend off right here. All night long. Me and my neighbor and other neighbors took shifts, two-hour shifts on and off,” said Spurr.

The derelict boat is a tourist attraction no one in Cape Coral wants to visit. There’s no timetable for when, or more importantly, how, the city of Cape Coral will get the boat upright and eventually tow it out of the water.

WINK News reached out to Cape Coral police and city council member Gloria Tate, but neither responded.

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