Couple Sells Everything, Buys Boat That Then Sinks

Tanner Broadwell and Nikki Walsh sold most of their possessions, bought a sailboat, and moved from Colorado to Florida with plans to explore the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. It was a longtime dream dashed—at least temporarily—just a day after they set sail. While navigating through John's Pass off Madeira Beach on Wednesday, the couple's 28-foot boat hit something—presumably a sandbar, per WFTS—and began filling with water. Though the couple and their dog swam to safety, they're now left with a sunken, uninsured boat and little more than the clothes on their backs. "I sold everything I had to do this and I lost everything in a matter of 20 minutes," Broadwell, 26, tells the Tampa Bay Times. "Everything I've worked for, everything I've owned since I was a child … it's just floating away," Walsh, 24, adds, per WFTS.

To make matters worse, the pair—who have about $90 in cash—have to come up with the $6,700 needed to remove their sunken boat from the Gulf, plus additional for storage. It's more than the $5,000 they spent to buy the 1969 boat, though they spent another $5,000 fixing it up after sailing it from Alabama to Panama City. That was their first sailing experience ever, with Broadwell's father along for the ride to help them learn the ropes. Family and friends are now helping out, while a GoFundMe page has raised more than $11,000 for the couple as of this writing. They hope the donations will allow them to "continue our adventure." "I'm not going to give up now. I'm going to get another boat down the road," Broadwell tells the Times. "The boat sank, but our dreams didn't sink with the boat," adds Walsh, per WFTS. (Three teens had to be rescued when their boat capsized.)