Boat pulled away by storm surge lands in Cape Coral backyard

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A boat built by a father and son smashed into pieces after Hurricane Milton. Not only did the boat wash onto shore, but it washed into the seawall of someone’s home on McGregor Boulevard.

Because Lewis MacDonald and his father built this boat by hand before he passed, Lewis usually docks his boat in Englewood, but brought it down here by the Cape Coral Bridge before Milton hit.

When he came back to assess the damage- his boat was gone, but one homeowner across the Caloosahatchee had a view of it from their backyard.

He and his late father built this 36-foot sport fishing boat together decades ago. Its his livelihood as a fishing charterman.

So when he moved it ahead of Hurricane Milton he made sure it was locked down tight.

“I had seven anchors out. The biggest one was a 35-pounder,” said MacDonald.

Thursday morning he realized he didn’t dodge the storm’s destruction.

“Like, 7:30 I’m driving over the bridge, and I was driving over the bridge, and I’m like, ‘I don’t see it’,” said MacDonald.

Across the Caloosahatchee up into the seawall of a home on McGregor, his boat was in pieces.

“My boat bow pieces in other parts of the boat, in two piles in the ground, and they’re two foot by four foot, three foot by five foot, two foot by two foot, one foot by one foot,” said MacDonald. “I mean literally when I say it’s like it blowed up.”

There will be other boats, but right now, MacDonald is grappling with losing a piece of his dad.

“Before he passed in cancer, he came down, ‘so proud of you,’ he said, ‘It’s the best it ever looked,’ but at least I got this,” said MacDonald.

“This” is the bell the two of them rang that day they took it out for the first time 30 years ago.

The bell was salvaged after Milton and the smallest reminder of his boat, “Mac-Attack”.

Seeing his boat in pieces was emotional, but he’s thankful the homeowners off of McGregor Blvd., where the boat ended up, were good sports about it.

MacDonald’s now talking with an insurance adjuster and looking for a new boat for his business.

He told WINK News that after these storms and the damage they left behind, he’s even thinking of moving his business to the Keys.

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