Quote:
Originally Posted by newhaul
Would love to see that report. 
Total side note my boat is built to MORC standards of the day :biggrin self righting and supposed to be unsinkable ( don't want to test that one) |
The Adventure Ends
This column was very difficult for me to write. On March 19, Phil and I watched in horror as the Coast
Guard shot a thousand rounds of 50 caliber machine gun shells into our sinking boat so she would not be
remain a hazard to navigation. She had been listing severely to starboard for several hours and had finally
flipped over as she was being towed behind the Coast Guard
Cutter Northland.
Three days earlier, we had left Isla Mujeres,
Mexico, bound for
Florida. We were motoring rather than
sailing due to unfavorable winds and a opposing
current. Suddenly, one of the engines began to lose
power and then failed. About 30 minutes later, the other
engine followed suit. This indicated a
fuel
problem of some kind, so Phil began trying to determine the cause. The seas were five to eight feet,
causing enough hobby-horsing that it was difficult for him to stay down in the
engine room more than a
few minutes at a time. He persevered long enough to change the
fuel filters on each engine several times,
bleed the fuel lines, even take fuel directly from a clean Jerry can of fuel to
rule out dirty fuel. Nothing
worked, and the strong
diesel smell and high seas soon took their toll on both of us. We raised the
sails,
but could not make any headway.
We were only about 40 miles from
Cuba and we used the
VHF radio to hail any nearby
boats that might
give us a tow. Two
boats responded to our “Pan Pan” on the
radio, but both were deep
draft boats that
couldn’t get us anywhere near the Cuban coast. Finally, we sent a text to our sons on a
satellite texting
device that our younger son had gotten for us. After calls to many agencies, they reached the Coast
Guard, who said they had a
cutter about 300 miles south of us that would
head our way to see if they
could assist us.
Exhausted from so many hours without rest and disheartened by our lack of choices, we decided we had
to get some sleep. We lit up the boat with running lights plus a strobe light at the top of the
mast to make
sure other boats could see us, and fell into
bed.
Late the next morning, the Coast Guard cutter arrived on the horizon. They first sent a
small boat with a
crew of three
diesel mechanics to determine if they could fix our engines. They worked on the diesels for
nearly two hours but, like Phil, could not get them started.
Those three returned to the cutter and three very experienced sailors were sent to see if they could help us
sail toward
Florida. The cutter would shadow us on the way. The sailing crew didn’t have much more
luck than we had. They got us moving north about three knots, then the
wind died. They also discovered
a
steering problem that was going to make sailing more difficult.
Finally, it was determined that we should board the cutter and the Coast Guard would tow the boat to Key
West. We set about securing the boat. I managed to close the hatches on the port (left) side of the boat,
but the crew members told us not to worry about the rest because a special “towing crew” would get the
boat ready. We had earlier noticed the sailing team trying to close the hatches from the outside and
warned them that they must close them securely from the inside to make them tight. The Coast Guard
crew instructed us to get two days of clothes, toiletries and any medication we needed and get aboard the
small boat to be transported to the cutter.
Once on board the cutter, we were treated like honored guests. The Coast Guard personnel could not
have been nicer. They took us to the flight deck to see how they were towing our boat and pointed out
that a crew
member would be stationed there around the clock to make sure the boat was okay. They
even set up a special light so they could see watch it at night. The tow line was long, about 100 yards. We
noticed that
water was flowing over the bow of our boat as she bobbed in the waves.
We were given a small stateroom on the boat, had dinner with the officers, then went to
bed. The next
morning, when we returned to the flight deck, we noticed that Sunshine appeared to be listing to starboard
a little. Phil pointed it out to the guard on boat watch who assured us that she was fine. Later that
afternoon the
captain sent word that Sunshine wasn’t doing so well and we should come back to the flight
deck. We were astonished to see that she was listing severely to starboard, the same side we were told
they would secure. At the same time, we noticed that one of the starboard hatches on the foredeck was
open. Waves were flowing over the foredeck and into the open
hatch. The reality of the situation became
clear and we knew we were going to lose her. Several hours later, she had flipped completely over.
At that point, the
captain told us that they could not leave her floating in the middle of the ocean. We
were still many hours from
Key West and he said they had no choice but to sink her completely. The
machine gun barrage lasted nearly an hour. She still didn’t totally sink until they sent a crew out with fire
axes to finish her off.
We arrived in
Key West the next morning. We had
lost everything on the boat except what we took with
us: two changes of clothes, our passports and our telephones. Phil also had the foresight to grab his
wallet. We had assumed we would be getting back on board when we arrived in Key West.
Now back home in Indiana, we have spent our time trying to make sense of what happened,
shopping for
new summer clothes, and making lists for the
insurance company of all our personal property that went
down with the boat. Our hearts are broken, but we are thankful to be safe, and life goes on. I cannot
imagine a future that does not include sailing. Phil is already talking about getting an RV and continuing
our adventures on land. Maybe we will compromise and do both.
I have enjoyed writing about our travels and have appreciated your kind comments. When we get ready
to continue our adventures, you will be the first to know.
)
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