<h2>Illusion aground on Cape Lookout Shoals</h2>
As so many boats before her, the Illusion a 1987 57’ Hatteras Gulfstream Sport Fish, met her demise by running aground on the shoals just 300 hundred yards off Cape Lookout, NC. The Illusion had just been purchased from a brokerage firm in Grasonville, MD and was on a voyage to her new home somewhere in Florida. To safely cross the shoals you must know how to run what is known as the slot to local mariners. The slot is a slough that runs west to east through the shoals but you must be experi- enced at making that crossing. It is difficult at best for the inexperienced to make this crossing during daylight hours but to attempt it at night is only for the more experienced captains who know this area. The safest alternative would have been to travel 12 miles south of Cape Lookout and made their eastward turn at the Knuckle buoy which marks the end of the shoals. Either way it’s not known why the crew decided to make the fate- ful choice of crossing the shoals only 300 yards off the Cape Lookout point.

A distress call from the Illusion went out Sunday October, 9 to the Coast Guard Sector North Carolina watchstanders at 7:37pm. The crew of two reported they had lost all power, were taking water over the stern, and rising water had drowned out the Generator. A Coast Guard boatcrew from Station Fort Macon launched a 47’ lifeboat to assist, but due to shoreline surf condi- tions, was unable to approach the vessel. A local towboat company also heard the distress call and dispatched a rescue boat but was unable to reach the grounded Illusion.
<h3>Hard aground</h3>
A MH-60 Jayhawk rescue helicopter was deployed from Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C. The two man crew from the Illusion was rescued from the vessel at 9:45 p.m. A big “GREAT JOB” goes out to the Coast Guard crew that performed the rescue operation. The Illusion crew was taken to the Coast Guard Station Fort Macon, NC where they were met by emergency medical services. Neither man required medical services. If you would like to see video of the daring rescue....

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The following day it was determined there could be no salvage operation because the stern had been completely torn away by the powerful surf. At this point there was no choice but to dismantle the boat and remove it from the Cape Lookout National Seashore. Seatow of Morehead City, NC was called upon to perform the difficult task of removing the Illusion from her watery grave. The Seatow crew used chain saws to cut away sections of the vessel which were then carried away by two track hoes and loaded aboard trucks to be hauled back to the ferry docks. Cape Lookout National Seashore is only accessible via ferry so the Illusion was loaded aboard and hauled back to the mainland. The removal operation could only be performed at low tides.