News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Carlene Wise looks at what’s left to the boat she was on when it caught fire and sank last month.

ALPENA — What was left of a boat that caught fire and sank in Thunder Bay last month was lifted to the surface, towed to shore in Alpena, and hauled away to be scrapped on Tuesday.

The couple who owned the boat are still counting their blessings that they were able to abandon ship and avoid serious injury.

Peyton Washburn and Carlene Wise used a favor from a friend, Capt. Paul LaBrecque, who owns Alpena Adventures, to formulate a plan to locate the sunken boat and safely bring it to shore.

LaBrecque used coordinates provided by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Coast Guard, and from Lady Michigan, who helped put out the fire, and photos of the boat before it sank to help locate it. He said it took many hours to find the boat, raise it, and haul it into the harbor where a tow-truck hoisted the charred remains out of the water.

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News Photo by Steve Schulwitz A boat that caught fire and sank in Thunder Bay last month was towed back to shore on Tuesday by Capt. Paul LaBrecque and his boat Seas the Day.

“We used the coordinates, which were all far from one another, and pictures to triangulate the area to hone in on it,” LaBrecque said. “We found it, went down and hooked up airbags and lifted it and dragged it to shore going one mile an hour.”

After being forced to jump out of the boat, Washburn and Wise were scooped out of the lake by a nearby boat, and then Lady Michigan arrived and used its fire suppression system to knock down the flames until water overtook the craft and pulled it to the lake’s bottom.

Washburn, Lady Michigan First Mate Matt Southwell, and LaBrecque are long-time friends, who were all reconnected in one way or another by the fire.

LaBrecque said he knew Washburn was staring at a very large bill that was only going to get larger with each day the boat remained in the lake, and decided to help his friend.

“That’s what friends do,” he said.

News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Peyton Washburn steadies what is left of his boat before it gets pulled onto a tow-truck. Washburn’s boat caught fire and sank last month, but was removed from Lake Huron on Tuesday.