Resounding Praise for Service in the Bahamas

The BoatU.S. claims department forwarded a letter of thanks to TowBoatU.S. Fort Lauderdale in April 2018. April was the beginning of a very busy spring/summer of Bahamas Towing for the Fort Lauderdale based towing and salvage company. "We are proud of the prompt, professional service that our customers have come to expect in the Bahamas" stated Barney Hauf, Director of Sales for TowBoatU.S. Ft. Lauderdale. "BoatU.S. offers the best in the business Bahamas coverage and the following letter of thanks really speaks for itself."

Dear BoatU.S.

I want to express my deepest appreciation and thanks for the amazing help I received recently from your team. Their professionalism and concern was really impressive, and I can’t tell you enough how much that meant to me and to my family.

On March 30th I was single-handed sailing my Hylas 46 from Great Harbour Cay in the Berry Islands of the Bahamas to Marsh Harbour in the Abacos. I was just south of Castaway Cay, about 9 nautical miles west of Sandy Point when my auto helm failed. A check of the salon and navigation station did not identify a problem, so I sailed on for about 15 minutes. When the engine also failed to start, I returned below to find 3 feet of water inside the boat. It turned out that the port-side rear portlight had been blown inward by the force of the water, creating an 18 ¼” x 6 ¼” hole in the hull and sending thousands of gallons of water into the vessel. Although I was only 3-4 nm south of Castaway Cay, I was in water greater than 10,000 feet deep and close to sinking. I turned north and headed for the closest land, Castaway Cay. It turned out that this was exactly the right thing to do – it kept more water from coming in, it got me and the boat safely to land and placed me within range of help.

This is where your team came in. I alerted my girlfriend, who was back in Maryland, and she reached out immediately to Boat US. The team initiated the claim, and located a towing service for me. Your representative Jessica repeatedly reached out to my girlfriend to keep her apprised of the progress and connected her to a local towing and salvage operator in Grand Bahama Island. This proactive attention was so much appreciated by my entire family, who were understandably anxious about my safety and prospects.

Each member of the team were consummate professionals in every respect. They were in regular contact with both my girlfriend and me, helped me assess the damage and best resources to address them and develop a plan which ultimately was to tow the vessel to Fort Lauderdale which was a distance of perhaps 100 nautical miles. The Tow Boat arrived promptly as promised on March 31 and got us underway. The captain remained in periodic contact with us through the night and into the next morning, when the TowBoatU.S. team from Fort Lauderdale arrived south of Freeport.

Steve and Noah of TowBoatU.S. Ft Lauderdale left the docks in Florida at 3 am to reach us around 8 am. They took over and guided us skillfully across the Gulf Stream and into safe harbor at Lauderdale Marine Center. Every aspect of this service was incredibly professional, your people were good at their sea skills but also at communication so that we could anticipate each stage and be prepared as needed. We reached the docks at LMC by 3:30 that afternoon and are now in the process of working with your team on estimates for repairs.

While there is a lot left to do, please extend my thanks to the team who got us this far.

Very Sincerely,

A satisfied BoatU.S. Insured