A sailboat was still beached near the tideline of West Beach Tuesday morning after a boat trip went very wrong last weekend.

The owner was moving his boat from Lynden to Port Townsend when his motor failed Saturday afternoon off the northwest coast of the island, said Capt. Jim O’Connor of North Whidbey Fire and Rescue.

The main tried to put down anchor but the line was too short. The wind and waves pushed his boat to shore.

“When we got there he was in the process of offloading his boat and walking through the surf,” O’Connor said.

Firefighters helped him remove fuel cans and batteries to prevent fires and spills. The Coast Guard talked to the man, who eventually accepted an offer of help from the Red Cross, to drive him to a hotel.

The sailboat washed up near the strip of homes on the waterfront of West Beach. Neighbors were kind to the man, offering him coffee and rescuers a place to stage, O’Connor said.

“They were phenomenal,” he said.