It was the early-morning hours of Thursday, November 2, and Santa Barbara–based fisherman Travis Meyer was asleep aboard his anchored 24-foot Privateer fishing boat Obsessed — which he had just purchased in late August and spent the past few months repairing and restoring for the Central Coast waters — and while he slept, his bait tank clogged and began to leak water for nearly three hours.
He woke up in shock to see that his recently refurbished boat was already leaning over to one side, and by the time he stepped on the deck, he said, the corner of the boat began to go under — he was going down fast, and without much time, he made a desperate attempt to call for help.
“With literally no time to think, I was able to get a mayday out to a friend nearby before I was in the water,” Meyer wrote in a social media post, recounting the close call. “After approximately five minutes on the bottom of the hull yelling to nearby fishermen, two boats came to help.”