THE WRECK BEFORE THE REEF: Volunteers prep derelict tugboat so it can be sunk south of East Pass

Candy Hansard says that hundreds of volunteer hours have been spent preparing the now derelict tugboat Monica Lee to become the area’s newest artificial reef.

“This has not been an easy task, but our members’ incredible dedication to improving our fishery provided them with the motivation to tackle every job that needed to be done,” the reef deployment director for the Emerald Coast Reef Association wrote in an e-mail to The Log.

The Monica Lee, which was built in Houma, La., in 1955, will be used to form an artificial reef in the Gulf of Mexico about 15 miles south of East Pass. As part of the deployment, the Monica Lee will pass through Destin to its final resting place.

Grants and projects manager Lindey Chabot said she was aware of the plans, but the city was not part of the sinking process.

“All of the reef sites are permitted through the county and DEP, so we don’t have any say-so on those projects,” Chabot told The Log Tuesday.

The tugboat has been tied to a dock behind the old Santa Rosa Bay Brewery property in Fort Walton Beach for three years. As for when it would make its way to Destin, Okaloosa County’s reef coordinator Scott Henson said he wasn’t quite sure.

“I don’t know whether or not it’s going to be over there or not,” he said. “We were told that they were trying to have it moved by the end of December, but they are a volunteer group, so a lot of it depends on when they get things done and get the boat prepared.”

For her part, Hansard said that it’s hard to have a timeline when you are working with 100 percent volunteer labor.

“This is the first time we have worked with a vessel,” she said. “We are almost there though.”

Hanson also said that the county’s only involvement would be permitting the project once the ECRA has completed their work. He said he is “very confident” the Monica Lee would pass inspection.

Hansard said the project began with a crew of about 27 volunteers “basically dismantling” everything that had been installed on the vessel and disposing of it, in preparation to thoroughly clean the boat.

“Cleaning 56 years of grime out of the bilge was a job that took several days of the nastiest work you could ever imagine,” Hansard wrote. “Mike Rowe from ‘Dirty Jobs’ should have been there for that one.”

James and Val Flores, the owners of Turnkey Marine Services in Fort Walton Beach, donated the tugboat to the ECRA.

Hansard wrote that James and Val are both “very interested in helping to build a sustainable fishery in our area, and the donation of the Monica Lee will help improve our fishery and our local economy for generations to come.”

Once the reef is deployed, Hansard said the plan is to let the tugboat sit for a few months to get established. After the boat settles, the ECRA will provide the coordinates to the public for interested divers.

“This is truly a story about what makes our community the best place to live,” Hansard added. “We are surrounded with some of the finest people right here in Okaloosa County …”