Advertisement North Carolina man reunited with his abandoned boat in Riviera Beach Share Shares Copy Link Copy

A North Carolina man was all smiles Thursday after being reunited with his boat in Riviera Beach. "Yeah, there's my boat. I can't believe it," said Jonathan Bryant. "I thought I'd left her out there. I felt guilty, you know?"In late March, Bryant and his 75-year-old uncle decided to take their 18-foot, 1965 Pearson Packet sailboat from Key West to Cuba. On April 9, just 30 miles into their return trip, 15-foot waves and bad weather forced them to make a mayday call. Luckily, a container ship heading to Mexico was nearby and rescued them from their disabled boat. Bryant said he had mixed emotions. He was happy to be alive but sad to see his boat, Bluebelle, which he had spent three years restoring, just float away. He thought he'd never see it again. However, a week later, Bluebelle was found a quarter-mile off the coast of Palm Beach after a 300 plus mile journey across the Caribbean Sea. On Thursday, Bryant says he drove 14 hours from North Carolina to get his baby back. "I was always living in hope, just a little bit. I didn't want to quit, and I was just getting to the point where it was time to move on. It's quite a special relationship, a man and his boat. It happened and I was like woo-yeah!" Tow boat captain Chris Shaffner, who brought the boat in, tracked down Bryant through the Coast Guard after he spotted Bluebelle floating near the coast. Shaffner said: "It's just a good story. The boat continued to float and made its way here, and it all worked out, which doesn't happen that much anymore." Shaffner added the boat was about 30 minutes from being destroyed on some rocks near the shore when he got to it.