There was a report, not long ago, of a boater getting a call from the cops
in Hawaii. He had been pulled off his sloop with his wife in a storm and
they had assumed, wrongly, that his yacht had gone down. The cops in
Hawaii, months or years later, had found his abandoned boat at the entrance
to one of Hawaii's harbors and had towed it in.....in good condition.
I know the "boater" and the "boat" you are referring to in this story,
and the story is even better than that:
The story begins in a marina on the West side of Oahu, Hawaii. The
fellow you're talking about spent years building his "ultimate" cruising
yacht (and from what I had seen of it, it certainly looked "good
enough"). He spent alot of time at the marina here touting his
"extensive" ocean going experience and his plans for moving back to
California and perhaps cruising South. (If you've been around the docks
as long as many of us here have, you learn to "spot" the real vs. the
imaginary. This guy was pure imaginary...) He finally took off from
Oahu bound for S. California with his girlfriend (zero sailing, boating
or ocean going experience) and her young daughter (even less experience
than her mother) as crew. This was the first time the three sailed
together, and the first time the owner had sailed in years. They also
traveled in company with a friend (also from Oahu) on a smaller yacht
(it was a Catalina or Hunter I believe, can't remember).
In the final days of their trip, and some 300 miles from California, the
weather got "brisk". Their friend on the smaller yacht made it into
port without incident. At this point, I'm told their autopilot wasn't
able handle the boat any longer for some reason (perhaps not knowing how
to trim or reef their sails?) and the owner hand steered for some 20-30
hours straight. Meanwhile, the girlfriend and young daughter refused to
come on deck (I think the sudden realization that it can get dangerous
out there may have contributed to this) and so the owner was left alone
on deck to handle the boat by himself. Eventually the owner decided he
could travel no further, and put out a mayday call.
The Coast Guard diverted a freighter to their position, and in "brisk"
Pacific conditions (30-35 knots, 10-12 foot seas) came alongside the
yacht and lowered the pilot ladder. As the 3 clammoured up the ladder,
the yacht slammed into the freighter, breaking a spreader and the top of
the mast. Incidently, the owner was told by the Coast Guard to
"scuttle" his yacht as he departed it, but he refused to do so, thus
leaving his yacht to drift, unmarked and unlit. His "heroic" story was
published in Lattitude 38 and his former neighbors here put together a
collection to help them financially (they had no insurance).
Stay with me, the story continues:
In addition to the monies raised by the local sailors here, a former
neighbor offered to help this guy out by buying him another yacht. He
tracked down a similar boat, bought it and gave it to our hapless
fellow, and even delivered it to the guy in California. (The guy is a
wealthy, retired rancher from Montana that now lives on his boat.)
Not 30 days after getting his new "gift" yacht, the hapless sailor in
California got a call from the Coast Guard, that his "lost" yacht was
spotted some 100 miles off Hilo Harbor (Hawaii Island) and was being
taken in tow by a commercial towing company. The yacht was ultimately
towed back to the -exact- same slip here on Oahu it had sat in for years
before.
I took a good look at this yacht that supposedly had been exposed to the
"storm of the century" and the -only- damage I saw was the broken
spreader and mast that happened when it collided with the rescuing
freighter. An Igloo cooler that had been left on the foredeck when it
was abandoned, was still there! Otherwise, the yacht was completely intact.
The hapless sailor flew to Oahu to inspect his rescued yacht. A bill
for towing the yacht to Oahu was still due, and our hapless sailor
refused to pay. The former neighbor that had helped him before, paid it
for him. The yacht was later fixed up and sold it to defray some of his
expenses.
There are many lessons to be learned by this story, but I'm afraid this
sailor probably didn't learn any of them. I wish I could say that this
was an isolated incident, but unfortunately I've seen similar situations
happen time and again.
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