IceDiveGreen 12-30-2007 1-12-08

[Shooter]

Speaking with the sheriff's deputy who handled the report we have an actual eyewitness account of the events that happened before the sinking.  The owner of the boat reported that it wasn't in the best mechanical condition.  The boat was also overloaded at the time of the sinking with up to five passengers that were all rescued.  The owner of the boat stated that he heard some cracking and crunching before the water started flooding in.  Which would lead me to believe that there was a mechanical failure, causing the lower unit to separate from the boat, not an actual impact as we had first suspected. The reason that the lower unit is still attached to the boat is that it is still attached by the throttle cable.  If you look in the video you can see the actual throttle laying on the floor with a cable extending out the back still attached to the lower unit.  At one point, I considered putting a lift bag on the lower unit,  So we could examine more closely to actually determine what happened.

As far as the drain plug and the keel, I did find a toilet plunger in the wreck, which would let a lot of credibility to the owners statement that it wasn't in the best repair..........