The last time he saw it was as he made a desperate, death-defying dive into its depths to retrieve life-saving equipment.
Now, after a full year floating at sea, the £70,000 boat in which Perthshire adventurer Mark Beaumont almost lost his life has been pulled ashore.
The Sara G still contains wallets, food and hundreds of dollars and pounds abandoned when Mark and the rest of the crew making a trans-Atlantic rowing attempt deserted the stricken vessel.
The 36ft fibreglass craft was hit by a massive wave, overturning it and forcing the six-strong crew into a life-raft. Mark made several dives below the boat to bring up essential gear.
They were picked up several hours later by a passing ship and brought to safety. Mark, who has just returned from a cycling trip in Malaysia, said the boat’s recovery was “incredible”.
It had been spotted drifting in the Caribbean several times in the past 12 months by the US coastguard but it had been prohibitively expensive to recover.
US salvage expert Mark Hutchings told how the boat finally ran aground on the Florida shoreline.
The owner of TowBoatUS on Key Largo said: “We salvage boats every few days but this one is unique. I’ve never seen one like it.
“Sitting there, it looked like an upside- down sailboat.
“I’ve seen some boats come apart after just a few days in the water. This one was out there for a year and it’s still a pretty substantial boat. Some stuff on board was destroyed but other things were totally intact. It still smells pretty bad in there.”
He said personal items would be returned to the rowers. The boat itself has suffered substantial damage, including several holes in its hull possibly bullet holes where people have tried to sink it, fearing it was a shipping hazard.
The Sara G was on-course to break the 32-day east to west cross-Atlantic rowing record in January last year.
Mark and the crew, rowing in two-hour shifts, had covered more than 2,000 miles in 27 days when freak waves picked the boat up by the stern, rotated it and capsized it.
Another Perthshire adventurer, Benno Rawlinson from Abernethy, is trying to break the rowing record. He and his team have rowed almost 1,500 miles since setting off from Gran Canaria on January 18.