This boat?

[Guest pod]

Arrrr.

There's enough space up front to fit 1 or 2 Harpoons. Just in case.

And this boat party is invite only.

[Guest coach]

The boat has moved!!! Actually, it only moved about 50 feet or so. But we also saw one of those orange "Tow" stickers on it the day before it moved. I think it actually moved yesterday. It is now closer to the causeway and turned about 90 degrees.

[Guest endymion]

The boat has moved!!! Actually, it only moved about 50 feet or so. But we also saw one of those orange "Tow" stickers on it the day before it moved. I think it actually moved yesterday. It is now closer to the causeway and turned about 90 degrees.

Pod told me yesterday that it had gotten some violation stickers slapped on it. That would actually be the second time it has moved, since I originally saw it off of Belle Isle a couple of miles northeast.

It only has one anchor so it's going to drift around with the current. The tidal current in that spot is surprisingly strong. 3-4 miles per hour at flood tide. If you look in the close-up photos I took, there is no stern anchor, so it pivots on the bow anchor. I'm not sure what that yellow strap is for (boarding?) but it doesn't look like it's strong enough to be an anchor line.

I tried Googling the Silver Goose now that we know its name and where it's from, but I couldn't find anything.

[Guest pod]

If you're right about the tides, it might be moving on it's own accord. I'm sure if someone moved it, it would have been reported.

I kinda want that boat now.

[Guest 0crystal0]

If you're right about the tides, it might be moving on it's own accord. I'm sure if someone moved it, it would have been reported.

I kinda want that boat now.

well go stealthily by night and boatnap it. it won't be noticeable at all

[Guest pod]

I'm sure the diesel powering it makes an assload and a half of noise.

[Guest endymion]

I kinda want that boat now.

With some remodeling and a paint job that ship would make the perfect Pod home. The engine must work or else it would still be in Sweden. Do me favor and rename it the Prinz Valdemar if you take it in salvage.

[Guest pod]

Exactly.

;D

[bobbalou]

saw it this weekend, its nice looking.

[Guest pod]

I'd definitely love to take a go at it. Swap out the diesel for a marine turbine, paint it up, restore it, all that fun stuff. Retro on the outside, with a little go on the inside.

[Guest endymion]

It's not far from the actual location of the Prinz Valdemar capsize. One of the three nails in the coffin of the South Florida real estate boom that built Miami Beach. That led in turn to those concrete pilings in the bay that you can see from the Julia Tuttle causeway.

(The other two nails were the 1926 Miami Hurricane and the stock market crash of 1929.)

[Guest lulamishka]

In today's Miami Herald Metro & State section!

http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/106001.html

SOUTH FLORIDA U.S.A.

Rusty boat flounders in a sea of mystery

A seemingly abandoned eyesore of a vessel has annoyed its Palm Island neighbors for weeks.

By NICHOLAS SPANGLER

nspangler@MiamiHerald.com

The boat anchored one night last month off Palm Island and the MacArthur Causeway. This, in itself, wasn't remarkable. But weeks passed, and some of the hundred thousand drivers who cross the MacArthur every day started to wonder what a rusty gray tub was doing off one of the richest waterfronts in South Florida.

On the island itself, there was growing consternation born of the feeling that this vessel -- situated so prominently, and so near the homeowners' rust-free yachts -- was not quite the thing.

''It's an ugly boat, and it's just sitting there,'' said Maria Santos, who lives on Palm Avenue. ``They need to tow it.''

''I heard it was a guy who came down here on vacation,'' said Suleiman Yousef, a bodyguard with a client down the street. ``He just left it there and went back to his country. It could be out there for years.''

George Albanese, the chauffeur at the Ferrari mansion, said he was going to give it a week, then call a good friend who works in salvage; Mike McManus, the property manager, said it was a ghost-ship, half-joking. ``We've never seen anyone on it.''

''So old-looking,'' said Barbara Hagen, from neighboring Hibiscus Island. ``People dock their boats here, but they're not as beat-up looking as this one. I mentioned it to some neighbors who know a lot about boats -- they just went to get theirs, in Singapore -- and they said even though it was rusty and old, it's a good boat, actually.''

From the shore, one could just make out the lettering on the port side: Silver Goose, it read. Stockholm.

But why would someone sail a boat 4,332 nautical miles from Stockholm, only to abandon it off Palm Island? What happened to the owner?

When a reporter has time on his hands and questions like these, he takes a swim.

The Goose had no dock ladder, but there was a fender, easily climbed. Miami Beach's marine patrol had been out three times already and left notices on the bridge threatening a daily $1,000 fine for violation of the city's anchorage ordinance, which obliges visiting vessels to weigh anchor after seven days.

The stern deck had a Harley-Davidson and some couches under tarps, and a door to the cabins below. It was open.

A cursory search below decks didn't reveal much: a man's leather jacket and some shorts; a tool kit; a flight schedule for a German airline; three plastic water bottles, bottled in Havana; some cigars; and a quantity of rum.

But there was also a desk, and it was crammed with papers. The Goose had been built in Amsterdam, in 1963; it was 20 meters long, displaced 70 tons and made 10 knots. Receipts and visa records indicated the owner was Per Ingvar Landin, 44, with mailing addresses in Pensacola and Stockholm.

Lots of men in Sweden are named Per Landin. One Per Landin is a well-regarded cultural journalist, for instance; one contributes to a right-wing website and seems to believe that homosexuals control Hollywood; another belongs to a men's a cappella group.

[cont. in next post]

[Guest lulamishka]

[cont...]

But this particular Per, along with a Swedish woman and two college-age American men, entered Cuba in early April and paid $20 a day to tie up for two weeks at Marina Hemingway. There he paid for some welding work to be done.

There was an e-mail address and two nonworking phone numbers for Per. But there were more numbers -- for ''Carl'' and ''Patty'' -- and these did work.

''Carl'' was Carl Hartman, owner of a Pensacola boatyard. He and Per had business disputes in the past. ''This guy, he just ties boats up everywhere,'' Carl said. ``He buys boats and brokers them over in Sweden. He's probably bought 100-some over here. Got a beard like Santa Claus, kind of stocky-built, speaks with a Swedish accent.''

''Patty'' turned out to be Patty's Boat Storage, in Pensacola. The yard manager, Jeff Lacour, had harsh words about Per; they'd had business disputes in the past, too. But he dug up a number for Per's friend, Scott McDowell.

''He loves buying a bargain, and Swedish money's worth a lot over here,'' said Scott, who said he himself is mostly a gypsy when it came to having a job. ``I met him at a boat auction after Hurricane Ivan. He ended up buying about 20 boats.

``And the Goose -- it was built for a parking-lot tycoon in England, did time as a charter on the west coast, went through three owners before Per got it. We got it in the water, stored it in the Pensacola Marine Complex until we got kicked out of there. So we took it to this fish camp, drove in one night with the emergency tiller 'cause the steering wasn't fixed, anchored next to one guy's houseboat, some guy Per met at a bar.''

Scott had been invited on the Cuba trip but declined, at his family's insistence, because of the ``political scene there.''

He wasn't sure why Per might have left the Goose at Palm Island and suggested he might be up in Stuart, where he had some more boats. He himself wouldn't set foot in Stuart, on account of some trouble with the sheriff. This had something to do with burglary in which he and Per were not -- repeat, not -- involved in any way. ''Hell no,'' said Scott. ``Innocent as can be.''

But Per wasn't in Stuart.

In response to an e-mail last week asking, among other things, if he'd abandoned his boat and, if so, why at Palm Island, he sent this, at 3:22 a.m. Swedish time Friday:

No the boat is not abandoned at all. It is left on anchor when I am over in Europe. I will be back next week in Miami and will continue my voyage with the boat.

I have a guy looking after it. Please let me know if any problems with the boat.

Confidential to Per and that guy watching the boat:

Bobby Hernandez, Miami Beach police spokesman, said last week, ''If we can't get ahold of the owner, we're going to deal with it.'' Towing was not ruled out.

[Guest endymion]

I just read that too, I was surprised that the reporter boarded the thing. Great way to get shot.

And it was stocked with illegal Cuban rum! DAMNIT!! I should have boarded and salvaged that rum!

[Guest pod]

Yeah I saw a Fire Rescue boat next to it yesterday.

[Guest meta]

i passed by it twice yesturday and didnt see anyone areound it. But i did see alot of paper on it for the violations.

[Guest Miss_Digital]

its just so damn ugly, if it was a nice yacht it would have gone unnoticed

[Guest endymion]

its just so damn ugly, if it was a nice yacht it would have gone unnoticed

The location is the problem. If the Silver Goose were anchored in the desginated anchorage field a half mile to the West between Watson Island and Palm Island then it could have easily sat there unnoticed for months. The anchorage field is the cluster of sailboats that you see right before the 395 bends to the right as you're headed westbound.

[Guest endymion]

The owner of the Silver Goose was featured today in the Herald.

''After all this, I was looking more at the houses there,'' Per said. "I even saw some people. And I think there is no point in talking to them. Their houses are perfect, and they are used to that standard; it is difficult for them to accept something on the way to being perfect. So I'm about to leave. I will not be long, I think.''

[Guest pod]

Brilliant .

I think this itinerant Swede and I see eye to eye on a few things. Drinking good beer and pissing off the nouveau riche on Palm Island.

[Guest Krazyjuice]

Pure class. Seriously.

[Guest pod]

The law on moorings and such is the law, yeah, but part of me loved this, I watched on Channel 7 how this was getting the Palm Islanders all riled up since it spoiled their view. Last time I checked, they see a road, big honkin' cruise ships, some cargo, and the occasional warship. Not exactly staring at fine art here.

[ryan2772]

fascinating!

[Guest coach]

By the way, it has moved. I thought it was all gone, but it is over further west, kind of behind Parrot Island. You can just see it as you are going over the tall bridge closest to the mainland. It is on the north side. It is not in the anchorage field where all the little sailboats are anchored.

[Guest pod]

Yeah, it's over there now. I guess he's gonna get it out of here at some point.