Beach-goers in Maine had an unexpectedly close encounter with former President George H.W. Bush when his fishing boat ran aground.
Bush can often be seen piloting his 38-foot boat off the coast of Kennebunkport. This time, the Fidelity IV ended up stuck on Gooch’s Beach for several hours.
It’s not clear who was steering the boat, but the former president and some family members were aboard, Bush’s personal assistant Jim Appleby told SeacoastOnline.com. The boat had trouble navigating through heavy fog that rolled in at midafternoon and got caught in swells that pushed it onto the public beach, Appleby said.
The same thing happened to a boat that was following Bush’s. Nobody was hurt, and neither boat was seriously damaged, according to Portland’s WCSH TV.
Secret Service agents and Bush staffers had to wait about five hours for the tide to come in and float the Fidelity IV off the sand. Hundreds of people gathered on the beach to watch the process and take snapshots.
“We were all going to go for a whale watch, but this tops that,” tourist Mike Hilton told a local TV news crew.
