Boats are good at being in water, I'm told. But when two Nantucket men were thrown overboard from their 26-foot "pleasure boat" three years ago, they never expected to see her again. Until the boat was found — three years and 3,500 nautical miles later.


The Queen Bee was a trouper, though, and wandered aimlessly in the Atlantic until last week, when she was found looking slightly worse for wear off the coast of Spain.

This latter-day Flying Dutchman likely drifted north in the Gulf Stream until it hit the North Atlantic Current, which probably carried the little boat all the way to its final destination — just 20 miles from the northern beaches of Spain.


That was 3,500 nautical miles from where her soggy crew had crawled onto the shores of Esther Island, expecting never to see her again.

The ship's original owner — maritime law dictates the Spanish Maritime Rescue Coordination Center, the organization that found the derelict vessel, now owns the boat — has no plans to reunite with the Queen Bee at this time.