If you’re itching to buy a boat that’s gotten lots of attention over the last 10 months, there’s no time to waste.
The 43-foot vessel called Deep Thought is up for bids in an auction that closes August 5 at noon.
The boat that was stranded and abandoned just south of Bradford Beach from last October until May. That’s when cranes lifted the vessel off its rocky perch.
The Milwaukee County Parks department hopes to recoup the cost by selling the boat.
A slight haze hovers along the horizon as waves slap the shore near the spot Deep Thought was stranded for seven months.
Vanessa Koster is glad the abandoned boat no longer occupies space here. Koster’s director of administration with Milwaukee County Parks.
Her department collaborated with multiple agencies, including the Coast Guard and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, to remove the vessel in May. “It was closely inspected, like the integrity of the sand to make sure there were no leaking fluids or gasoline,” Koster explains.
Gasoline was not an issue, Koster says, because the owners of Deep Thought ran out of fuel before they abandoned the boat during a storm last October.
Still, she says, every precaution was taken when crews prepared to lift and haul the boat away.
“There were hazmat there and mats down to make sure there was no disturbance. So you know, all of the sand was kept in place. There was some sand and sediment that had hardened in the boat but otherwise everything was kept in place,” Koster says.
It cost about $50,000 dollars to get the job done — including towing the boat 14 miles to its temporary home at All City Towing. An anonymous donor along with a local foundation covered $30,000. That left taxpayers on the hook for $20,000. Koster hopes the auction will make up the difference. The boat’s owners weren’t held responsible because they reportedly couldn’t afford to pay.
Aaron Zeleske says it’s unfortunate so much money had to be spent on the boat’s removal.
“It’s just not a great use of resources. Public funding or philanthropic funding, that is money that could have been used for something else,” he says.
Zeleske is environment director at Harbor District, Inc.
During its prolonged residence along the lakeshore, Deep Thought developed a following. A ballerina danced atop it. Artists adorned it with graffiti. Some people wished the boat would remain stuck in lake.
Zeleske views the vessel’s presence through an environmental lens.
“A boat like that, the materials it’s made out of break down over time into microplastics that make their way into food chains in ways that we’re just starting to understand,” he says.
Zeleske hopes Deep Thought cultivates deep thinking about the about importance of Lake Michigan and how everything we do affects it.
“Like one Styrofoam container thrown out of a car window isn’t going to make a huge difference. But the cumulative impact of a lot of different things add up and have an impacts on the environment and on ecosystems and water quality,” he says.
Zeleske says humans have a give and take relationship with the lake — that’s as positive as we want to make it.
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