The Delivery

I had just come out of the Department of surgery meeting. It was about 5:45 PM and I was getting ready to go home. I am currently chief of surgery at a community hospital in Toronto and the meeting had just wrapped up. The familiar ring of my cell phone went off and I glanced down at the caller ID. It was Pat Sturgeon.

“There is a rescue going off of the coast of Nova Scotia” he said. “Do you think it’s your boat?” I stopped dead in my tracks as my heart dropped. This kind of news was my worst nightmare.

The story began about six months earlier. There was no wind on Lake Ontario and my 35 foot C&C sailboat was bobbing around in no wind. The bright sun was burning the top of my head in the mid-afternoon. The temperature was 30°C. The Wind Finder app on my phone was predicting no wind for the next 24 hours. There was no way that the boat was going to finish the Lake Ontario 300 sailing race before my self-imposed curfew of Wednesday morning. I had a full list of operating booked and I had to be back to work. The boat was 60 miles from the finish line and I made the decision to abandon the race. I started the engine and headed back to the club.

The boat was on autohelm and the lake was as smooth as glass as I motored west. There was not a ripple in the smooth water. This ride home was going to take 10 hours. As I lay back on the cushions in the cockpit, I had plenty of time to reflect. I am 62 years old and dreaming of spending the winters in the Caribbean on a 50 foot boat outfitted to go off the grid for months at a time. I figured that I had between 3-5 years left to work before I would have enough money saved up to be able to do this. The key obstacle in the plan was to have a sailboat that would be able to meet the needs of both myself and Ileana. I must have drifted off because I saw myself on the deck of a beautiful boat anchored in turquoise water with the outline of coconut trees on an island that was close by. When I woke up, I knew what I had to do. I needed to get the boat so I would have 3-4 years to get used to it and prepare for the trip south.  

Pat Sturgeon of Pat Sturgeon yacht brokers met with me and we spent about an hour discussing what I was looking for in boat and we formulated a plan. I had spent the last five years surfing the Internet looking for the perfect boat, but Pat was able to direct me to the best choice. He has been in business for 30 years and sold my C&C 35 sailboat to me 20 years earlier. The search began. It took about two or three weeks to narrow down the options and while flipping through the pages of the Internet, Ileana pointed out the boat she wanted and I agreed. Makena was a beauty. She had hardly been used and was kept immaculate. She had everything that you would need to live comfortably at anchor for months at a time. There were freezers, fridges, hot and cold running water for showers, washing machine, solar panels, generator, and the list goes on.

The Hanse 495 was in Greece. An offer was made, marine survey completed, and the purchase was finalized. Once in motion, everything seemed to happen so quickly. I was surprised that there were no questions asked by the bank when I dipped into my line of credit so deeply. There was a snag however, with insurance. I called my insurance company and explained situation. I had a sailboat in Greece that I wanted insurance. After a week or so, the response was they would not insure the boat and had no idea how it could be insured. Pat Sturgeon put me in touch with a Marine insurance broker and within several days, for a substantial fee, Lloyd’s of London came to the rescue.

I had a lot of discussion with Pat Sturgeon how to get the boat to Toronto. We looked at the option of keeping the boat in Greece and sailing it in the summers. This however presented some VAT tax issues, and some other problems, so we looked at the option of getting the boat shipped. We would have to sail the boat to Genoa Italy, load it on a ship, and have it delivered Newport. From Newport, it would have to be shipped or sailed to Toronto. There were some concerns about whether the 10% export tax would apply to a boat that was passing through United States, and the overall shipping cost was going to be about C$50,000 which was beyond what I was willing to pay.

We looked at the option of having the boat sailed across by a delivery skipper. We came across Rupert. Rupert has done over 150 deliveries all over the world. He has sailed up the St. Lawrence Seaway three times and had been to Panama Canal, across the Atlantic, across the Pacific, and had come very highly recommended. He was well known in the industry as a dependable, reliable, delivery skipper. I contacted Rupert and he was willing to do the job. He flew to Greece and spent a week making certain that the boat was up to the task of sailing across the North Atlantic after the hurricane season in the fall. He commented that the boat was immaculate. It had hardly been used and was designed for this type of crossing. It was a beautiful boat, and he could find no flaws. He had his bag of tools and explained that he could handle almost any failure. He had sailed in more dangerous waters with less seaworthy boats on many occasions. He had no doubt that he could sail the 5000 nautical miles and deliver the boat to Toronto before the St. Lawrence Seaway closed on December 23, 2018. His fee was $200 a day which included the two crew and a cook. He estimated it would take 39 days. He would need to stop for fuel and supplies in Gibraltar, the Azores, Port Hawkesbury in Nova Scotia, and then Toronto. The boat had AIS tracking system and he had satellite phone and would communicate with me.

Rupert set off from Greece on Saturday, October 13, 2018 on a beautiful sunny day with 10 kn of wind. The first problem began about a day later. The autohelm stop working. The auto helm is a key safety feature for a boat of this size. It is very difficult to hand steer a boat for long periods of time safely. A sailor must be able to move around the boat to adjust sails, check the rigging, and have access to the VHF radio for weather reports and to know about Marine boat traffic to avoid collisions. Rupert pulled in to Messina, Italy. He was able to fix the problem easily by changing the wiring directly to the auto helm. A permanent repair would be done when the boat arrived in Toronto. He felt that this was safe, and practical.

A week or so later, Rupert arrived in Gibraltar. The weather had taken a turn for the worse and he had to spend several days in Gibraltar waiting for a weather window to sailed to the Azores. The boat had behaved beautifully during this first crossing of over a thousand nautical miles. Rupert explained to me that there was no doubt the boat was up to traversing the North Atlantic at this time a year. On Sunday, October 28, Rupert planned to set off for the Azores. His plan was to head south of the rhumb line and then head north when the weather allowed. Unfortunately, hurricane Oscar was pummeling the United Kingdom and was disturbing the weather systems making it impossible to leave the Azores until Wednesday, November 2.

I was able to follow Rupert on the AIS signal on my smart phone and he arrived in the Azores on November 10, 2018. This plan was to refuel, resupply some food, and then depart as soon as possible. However, the weather took a turn for the worse and he had to stay in the Azores until November 17, 2018. At one point, he did leave but had to return because a fishing rope was wrapped around the propeller.

On Monday, November 19, Rupert set off for Nova Scotia. His plan was to go south and dodge any weather systems that were rolling through the North Atlantic this time of year. As it was November, the hurricane season had passed but there would be winter storms.

Rupert’s AIS position as he is leaving the Azores going 7.2 kn

I was able to follow Rupert’s progress and noted that he was heading south to avoid weather.

One of those triangles belong to Rupert as he heads southwest off the coast of Africa, November 19.

There were low-pressure systems rolling through every few days but Rupert was able to avoid them by going north or south depending on which direction the weather systems were moving. On December 13, the plan was to hit the Northwest corner of a system as it was circulating to the south. The plan was made on weather predictions that were downloaded from the satellite phone. The weather predictions were four hours old and felt to be very accurate. However, despite taking all the precautions and calculations, Rupert found himself at the wrong end of the hurricane…..

The purple and brown colours represent hurricane force winds. You can tell from the AIS positioning that he was facing the southeast running with the wind with the boat laying a hull. The tiller was lashed to the side so the boat was rolling safely with the waves. This whole time, there was a huge deafening roar from the waves, the wind tearing through the rigging, and the rolling of the boat. Lisa, the cook was in the forward cabin cushioning herself with sleeping bags and terrified. Rupert and the crew were hanging on in the main salon trying to avoid getting battered waiting for the winds to blow through. This lasted about 24 hours and the winds reached the peak of 73 kn. After the wind settled down to a dull roar of 35 kn, Rupert went out to assess the damage.

There was a buckling to the floor of the cockpit and it was apparent that the rudder had rotated 180°. The steering cable had snapped. I received a text message from Rupert updating me that there was a problem with the steering. I sent him a text message back asking if he needed assistance….although I had no idea how I could possibly assist him while he was in the middle of the North Atlantic and I lay awake in my cozy bed worried that I might never hear from him again. Lisa sent me a text back saying not to worry that Rupert was working on a solution and she had no doubt was going to come through.

Rupert indeed did come through. He was able to cobble the steering back together again using a combination of spanners and wrenches. He took the steering mechanism off and turned it upside down so that it would function. After two hours, the boat was up and running again.

Rupert was heading directly for Halifax 500 miles to the west. The steering system was working very well. It appeared that there was going to be a direct run to the coast of Nova Scotia. Rupert received constant updates of weather from the satellite phone. There was a low-pressure system, and through and it was expected that winds blew come from the northeast but the maximum winds would be 35 kn.

This was the last text message that I received from Rupert on December 16.

One day later on December 17, at 5:45 PM after my Department of Surgery meeting I received the first phone call from Pat Sturgeon. I explained that the boat was equipped with an emergency beacon that would go off the case of emergency. My cell phone number was the contact number and I had not been contacted so my first reaction was this could not possibly be my boat that was getting rescued. The second phone call five minutes later from Pat confirmed that I was wrong. This was my boat that was in distress in the North Atlantic but all four sailors that were on board had been successfully rescued from the boat safely. The boat was abandoned.

My first reaction was disbelief and then shock. I was at my desk in the hospital when the news hit me. Although I always knew there is risk with sailing, I believed that my boat would make it safely to Toronto. Rupert was 240 miles off Halifax and been at sea for 34 days. He would have been safely in the harbour two days later. I wept. Six months of dreaming had ended with the boat being abandoned in the unforgiving north Atlantic. I rationalized the disaster with the comfort that nobody was injured and no one died. This reality has provided huge comfort and has allowed me to put things in perspective. It has allowed me to feel empathy for the mental anguish that Rupert has been going through having to abandon the boat he was meant to deliver safely. It has allowed me to understand the terror that the crew and Lisa the cook went through. It has once again reminded me of the tenuous attachment we all have to everyday living that I take for granted.

The Makena abandoned in 55 kn of wind with a Navy boat standing by.

Rupert first contacted me five hours after the ordeal. He was devastated. He explained he has never lost a boat. He told me he felt so ashamed. He said that he got to the point where he was worried about the safety of the crew and that is when he made the decision to abandon the boat.

Rupert knew there was a weather system approaching from the northeast. He was getting constant updates from the satellite phone. The maximum winds were going to be 35 kn which he felt he could handle safely. The boat was sailing well and there was no problem with the steering. When the winds hit 55 kn, the boat was hit with a huge wave. The auto helm shattered. There is a solid metal bar about three quarters of an inch thick and 4 inches long that snapped like a twig. The emergency tiller could not be used because the waves and the winds were so strong, it would have killed anybody who was handling it. There was no way to control the boat against the tempest and that huge waves. The weather was predicted to worsen over the course of the night. The system was predicted to bring stronger winds and bigger waves over the next 24 hours.

There were two Canadian Navy boats that were nearby and were returning from naval exercises in Europe. Rupert had been in contact with them. At 2 PM, Rupert explained that he was in trouble and had no steering. He realized that there was no fix to the shattered steering system, but if he could drift safely and get close enough to Nova Scotia, he could get towed to safety. The Navy vessels said they were coming to assist and it took 1 ½ hours to cover the 8 nautical miles because of the rough weather. At 3 PM, as the winds were getting stronger and the waves getting larger, Rupert came to the realization that the crew were in danger and the only safe and rational option was to abandon ship.

The Navy ship could not launch their lifeboat because the waves and the wind were ferocious. Rupert was instructed to deploy the emergency life raft, get everyone safely inside, and then the navy ship could get them easily on the ship. When the life raft was deployed, it flipped upside down and could not be righted. The securely lashed line from the life raft to the transom tore the transom from the stern of the boat as the force of the waves and wind strengthened. Rupert and the crew were left stranded on the disabled sailing vessel as the life raft flipped over and over racing off with the storm and their hopes of rescue going with it. It was then that the Navy ships helped coordinate the rescue helicopter.

The search and rescue team are trained to do rescues in terrible weather conditions. However, this was described as one of the most difficult rescues they have ever performed. The first step was to make sure that the crew were in emersion suits in case they went into the water. Often, it is safer to rescue sailors in the water to avoid getting the ropes and safety equipment wrapped up in the rigging of the sailboat. However, it was getting dark and the team realized that if they lost someone in the rough seas, they would never find them in the dark. The first step was to get emersion suits onto the sailboat. To do this, the Navy vessels planned to throw a rope to the sailboat and the emersion suits would be passed on to the deck. To do this, the Navy vessel had to get very close to the Makena. The Navy vessel got close enough to throw the rope and it was a success but as the Makena was in the lee of the huge Navy vessel, it stopped moving while the Navy vessel continued to get pushed by the wind. The Navy vessel drifted forcefully into my sailboat and broke the forestay and the pulpit. This caused anchor to flail around at the front of the boat and it could not be controlled. The mast was held up by the jib halyard and the mast was reverberating back and forth making a terrible racket. Rupert was worried that it would come crashing down killing the crew so they all scampered into the aft cabin for safety.

In the meantime, the rescue helicopter had arrived after refuelling at an oil drilling station. A rescuer from the search and rescue team was lowered to the deck of the Makena. Rupert describes a sudden gust pulling the helicopter up and then dropping the rescuer into the cold North Atlantic. The rescuer was still attached and was pulled up and deposited back onto the deck of the Makena. He was not injured and it seemed it was just another day at work.

The process of getting off the boat is to put the sling underneath the arms and in seconds, the sailor is pulled into the helicopter. Lisa went first, the two crew next, then Rupert, and the rescuer last. When the rescuer arrived on the helicopter, he was covered in blood. The search and rescue team asked him if he was injured and he patted his chest and his abdomen and said that he did not know what they’re talking about. Fortunately, he had only some minor cuts and abrasions to his face from his altercation with the North Atlantic waves and was otherwise fine.

Rupert remembers looking down sadly from 500 feet in the air from helicopter at the Makena. He remembers feeling defeated. He has relived those last few hours on the Makena many times trying to come to grips whether he made the right decision by abandoning the boat. He goes over the damage to the steering to reflect on whether he could have fixed it. He relives the terror that crew and Lisa were feeling and cannot come up with any other solution.

After spending the next few days in Halifax making travel arrangements, Rupert flew to Toronto and then on to Gatwick Airport in London. I met with him for dinner in Toronto. He felt that the Makena had likely sunk, but even if it gets recovered it would be a write-off because of all the damage. He recounted the rescue story, but we also reflected on the Hanse sailboat design and whether it was a good boat. He says that if it were not for the steering failure, the boat was a great boat. He described having a hot shower every night and having the freezer full of food and never worrying that it would fail. He says the boat sailed fast in light winds and when the hurricane hit, he felt safe lying a hull in the waves while the hurricane blew over.

He told me that he felt that he had let me down terribly by abandoning the boat. I explained that I felt he made the right decision and that ultimately, everybody was safe. The boat was insured for exactly this kind of disaster, and my plan was to purchase a new boat the same as the Makena. When it came to deliver the boat to Toronto, I told him that he will be my first phone call.

One year later. An article in McLean’s magazine …….

Here’s a link: https://www.macleans.ca/plucked-from-peril/