Claire Erin bought a boat on Facebook Marketplace for £2,200 and was excited to take it out on the water - but her first trip ended in disaster when something went majorly wrong12:23, 21 May 2026Sinking feeling: Woman buys £2k boat from Facebook marketplaceBuying items from Facebook Marketplace is always a bit of a gamble. The social media site's secondhand selling platform can be a useful tool if you want to pick up a dining room table from someone who lives in your neighbourhood, but you can never be sure of what you're going to get.‌Facebook Marketplace sellers can list everything from homemade cakes to cars, and as one woman recently discovered, you can even buy boats on the site. But if her experience was anything to go by, it isn't recommended.‌Claire Erin fell in love with life on the water during her first-ever sailing trip, and when she spotted a boat on Facebook Marketplace for just $3,000 (£2,230), she knew she had to snap it up and begin embarking on her own journeys to sea.‌But the 28-year-old woman from Virginia, USA, was in for the shock of her life when she took the boat, named Mysto, out on their very first long-haul solo sailing trip. Claire had planned to spend four months at the helm while travelling down the Intracoastal Waterway, a 3,000-mile-long canal-type route stretching from Virginia to Florida.After spending her first 24 hours at the helm, Claire anchored up at a spot along the route and called it a day. However, she was woken up at 6am to the sound of moving water as she discovered her boat was sinking.‌She said: "On the GPS app I use called Navionics, a user had put in that they anchored off the side of the channel successfully in this one spot, so I decided to try it. I figured if the tide goes out and I do ground, then I would just wait for the next high tide again and motor off then. I called it a night, and I went to sleep."I woke up at 6am the next day to the sound of moving water. I was terrified and didn't know what to do."I jolted up, and to my horror, my boat was completely on its side, and water was pouring in the windows, filling up half my boat. My entire 10-gallon diesel tank had emptied as well, and the horrible smell of diesel fumes filled the cabin.‌"Everything was soaked. The water went up to my engine, all my food was ruined, my bed, all my clothes, all my tools. Low tide must have gone way lower than I could have ever anticipated, and I had no idea my windows were leaky enough to flood my whole boat."Thankfully, Claire had paid for unlimited towing through Boat Tow US, which managed to get the boat to a safer location. However, the saltwater reaching her engine had stopped it from working, so her boat was unusable, and she was quoted a staggering $10,000 (£7,451) by the tow company to take her to the nearest town, Wilmington, North Carolina.‌Unable to afford the hefty bill, Claire was left alone on the boat with one task - to get the engine working again.She recalled: "I knew I'd have to get my engine going and get myself out of this situation, or I was going to lose my boat. For five days straight, I worked morning, afternoon, and night on my engine."My whole boat was a mess and wet. All my clothes were wet, so I worked in the same outfit the whole time. I slept on a wet bed with wet blankets. I had no food because all my food was drenched in diesel and saltwater combo – luckily I did have a gallon bag of pistachios. It was a nightmare."‌Claire finally got her boat started after five days of gruelling work, and managed to get herself to a nearby marina where she was able to moor her boat and book herself a much-needed night in a hotel with a takeaway.She added: "I don't think I've ever heard a more beautiful sound than my engine finally starting up after being stranded in the middle of nowhere with no food and no help for 5 days."I didn't give up, I had no choice. I either fixed the problem or I lost my boat, and I didn't come this far to get this far. I got myself out of there.Article continues below"I went to a marina after that and washed all my clothes and cleaned up my boat. I got a hotel room for the night, and I took a shower and ordered DoorDash. I really don't think I've been prouder of myself than at that moment."