As I was on a bike ride this morning I discovered a good sized boat smashed against the shore. I happened to have an Air in my backpack so I thew it up in the air and caught some video and stills. Oddly there was no one around - it was an abandoned ship. Truly an unusual site to see in the middle of Berkeley, California.
The main challenge shooting this was that there were very strong winds blowing I would guess about 20-25 mph direclty on shore. I could barely fly out towards the sea with full stick forward (though sport mode would have gotten me out there faster). The Air did a great job of keeping a stable video in this wind, and as you could see it was tough to follow the shore towards the boat.

It's a complete mystersy so far as to what happened. No one was around. The ship looked fairly well battered. This is a heavily trafficked area as you can see.

Did you see Howells, Ginger, Mary Ann, Professor, Skipper, or Gilligan hanging around?

It was a three hour tour.

Sounds like something the broke away from it's mooring and the strong winds blew it to the shore.  Owners probably didn't know yet.
Nice pic, though.  You may want to leave your email address.  The owners might appreciate a copy for insurance purposes.

Cool vid! I bet it came loose from the Emeryville Marina.

Here's the story that ran in the local news - doesn't have any of my shots but I just provided them to BerkeleySide so it may be updated by the time you look at this: https://www.berkeleyside.com/201 ... -at-berkeley-marina

Good shots. Just being in the right place at the right time. Some unfortunate boat owner will soon get the bad news. Thanks for the share.

Kind of funny what I heard back from the news reporter was, "great aerial shot, could your drone fly in thru the hatch?"

Um, well, no. I guess if you don't know about drones that could be a reasonable question.

And now that has me wondering: Is there any kind of drone technology that *could* actually fly in through that hatch?

Given enough skill (which I lack) I can't see why one couldn't explore the interior. Most of the boat is wood or fiberglass, neither of which affect the radio signal much. You'd be entirely dependent on the live video from the drone, though, and that would be quite a challenge!

Danger Lampost Posted at 2018-8-9 16:47
Kind of funny what I heard back from the news reporter was, "great aerial shot, could your drone fly in thru the hatch?"

Um, well, no. I guess if you don't know about drones that could be a reasonable question.

Maybe with a Tello ?