Following the mantra that “the captain goes down with the ship,” a foreign yacht owner opted to stay on his 41-foot yacht after it ran aground off a Pattaya Bay island.
Roland Choi and four friends had gone for a cruise on his yacht, the Mattusa, from Pattaya’s Ocean Marina Yacht Club Nov. 13 when he radioed that the boat had lost power and rudder control.
The current took the yacht into the rocks off Koh Khram Yai, about a 90-minute sail from Pattaya. The navy requested that fishing boats in the area check on the vessel and report back. Meanwhile, the yacht club dispatched a speedboat to check on the sailors. No one was hurt.
A navy patrol boat arrived and Choi requested help in pulling the listing vessel back to sea. But due to the low tide, the patrol boat was unable to get close enough to the Mattusa. The navy instead took the crew back to the Sattahip Naval Base to wait for high tide.
Choi, however, was unhappy leaving his boat. He told navy officials the boat was seaworthy and he had food and water. So, he was taken back to his boat to wait for assistance during high-tide.
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