Althouse: "There was no emotion. While we were getting things done, we all had that feeling, ‘I can’t believe this is happening,’ but it didn’t keep us from doing what we needed to do and prepare ourselves to abandon ship."

March 21, 2023

"There was no emotion. While we were getting things done, we all had that feeling, ‘I can’t believe this is happening,’ but it didn’t keep us from doing what we needed to do and prepare ourselves to abandon ship."

From "Sailboat crew rescued in Pacific after abandoning ship sunk by whale/ Four people aboard the Raindancer were stranded in the Pacific Ocean for 10 hours" (WaPo).

26 comments:

Joe Smith said...: They were lucky...sounded well-prepared except for not keeping their phone fully charged.

The whale's name was Moby.

He was a dick.; 3/21/23, 10:36 AM
gilbar said...: Whales! Murderous Whales!!! These Sea MONSTERS keep destroying ships! I've Read about it!; 3/21/23, 10:47 AM
Kevin said...: What? No tie to climate change?

Those WAPO editors are off their game today.; 3/21/23, 10:51 AM
Owen said...: They were "aswim" for 10 hours???! OMG.

Try looking up the story of the whale-ship "Essex" which inspired Melville in writing "Moby-Dick." Nathaniel Philbrick wrote an excellent book on this misadventure, "In The Heart Of The Sea."; 3/21/23, 10:51 AM
Bill R said...: People are adrift in the Pacific ocean, an expanse that covers half the world, and they are picked up in 10 hours.

Are we the dominant species around here or what?; 3/21/23, 10:52 AM
Quaestor said...: It seems to be quite fashionable to harbor unaccountably imbecilic notions about animals, which suggests why there have been 1,200 whale-boat collisions since 2007. The Raindancer's encounter seems to have been entirely accidental. (Though who really knows, insurance claims are probably involved?) However, I'd wager most of those 1,200 incidents were provoked by romantic idiots being idiotic.; 3/21/23, 11:01 AM
Brian said...: My retirement dream is to sail in these exact waters. Based on the article, they appear to have handled everything perfectly. Maybe keep everything charged a little more.; 3/21/23, 11:20 AM
Pete said...: Really impressive - these are serious sailors. They did everything right. We coastal cruisers who never leave sight of land need to have a similar mindset.

Just don't get me started on powerboaters!; 3/21/23, 12:01 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Reminds me of a scene from a WWII Navy movie where there was a sign posted by the radioman's station which read "A Sinking At Sea Can Ruin Your Whole Day".; 3/21/23, 12:03 PM
n.n said...: gentrification on the high sea; 3/21/23, 12:27 PM
Steven Wilson said...: 1200 collisions in fifteen years? Are there really that many sailboats and that many whales? Like Quaestor, I'm suspicious. Although the detail about the vegetarian pizza being dipped into ranch dressing does call into play the possibility that the whale may be a food critic.; 3/21/23, 12:28 PM
Leland said...: Hey, that happened this year. ;)

I have to agree with others above that being adrift for 10 hours in the Pacific before rescue sounds pretty good for mariners. I wouldn't want to experience it, but then I don't go to sea as often. Compared to the crew of the whale ship "Essex" or Lt. Bligh, these mariners had it easy.; 3/21/23, 12:50 PM
Steven Wilson said...: 1200 collisions between whales and sailboats in a little over fifteen years? Are there that many whales, that many sailboats? I'm with Quasetor on this one and find it suspicious unless of course it's sailboats colliding with whales because those sailing want to get up close and personal with these huge mammals.

However, the detail about the vegetarian pizza being dipped into ranch dressing does raise the possibility that this whale was a rampaging food critic.; 3/21/23, 1:15 PM
Michael K said...: My chief concern when sailing to Hawaii in 1981 as a participant in the Transpac Race was hitting a lost container at night doing 23 knots. It was black out there and that was a windy year. We were going like hell at night (when it is windiest) and we would never see a container. There are lots of them out there.

10 hours is a pretty short period in a raft. 66 days is more like it. The year I went in Transpac, Willard Bell picked up the crew of a trimaran that broke up the first night of the race. He had a Lapworth 50 that is still in the family now that Willard is gone. He told the crew he had rescued that he was going to Hawaii and they could go too or he would have a helicopter pick them up. They decided to go and he had a crew of about 23 on his 50 foot sailboat. They didn't win but had a lot of fun.; 3/21/23, 1:21 PM
re Pete said...: "Just then this cop comes down the street

Crazy as a loon

He throw us all in jail

For carryin’ harpoons"; 3/21/23, 1:53 PM
JaimeRoberto said...: I used to sail against a kid who had survived a collision with a whale while returning from Hawaii with his dad. I think they were a couple days out from the Golden Gate when it happened. That would have been a nervous couple of days.; 3/21/23, 2:36 PM
Oso Negro said...: I assumed the odd detail of vegetarian pizza dipped in ranch dressing was either virtue signaling or an attempt to exculpate themselves from having offended the presumed sensibilities of the whale.; 3/21/23, 2:40 PM
~ Gordon Pasha said...: My Dad's destroyer hit a sleeping whale in the Pacific during WW2 and had to put in for 2 months of repairs. In the late 80's I had a patient ask me to crew with him when he sailed back a new boat from Hawaii to Long Beach. My Dad advised against it for that very reason.; 3/21/23, 3:27 PM
Michael K said...: Blogger Steven Wilson said...

1200 collisions in fifteen years? Are there really that many sailboats and that many whales?

I wonder how many were whales? There is a lot of floating debris out there, especially containers that fall off ships in the north Pacific.; 3/21/23, 3:41 PM
Mikey NTH said...: I have experienced situations where I was so focused on what I had to do to avert catastrophe that panic wasn't an option - or even thought about until afterwards when I would think "Why didn't I panic? Or was I too busy to do so?"; 3/21/23, 5:17 PM
n.n said...: Plastics... containers in the oceans are a floating debris field. Labor and environmental arbitrage to manage shared responsibility has a progressive price.; 3/21/23, 5:21 PM
Joe Smith said...: @Michael K at 3:41pm

Good point. You'd think whales would be slippery and the boat would 'ride over' them...; 3/21/23, 5:55 PM
gilbar said...: So, Basically, the Whale was doing donuts in a sea lane? And spun into the sailboat?
Coast guard couldn't get there for TEN hours because other sealife was crowding around the cutters, and couldn't move?

Do i have that right? Or am i getting cross talk from another post?; 3/21/23, 6:18 PM
Quaestor said...: "You'd think whales would be slippery and the boat would 'ride over' them..."

A vessel like Raindancer probably has a deep fin keel with a skeg rudder. Such a bottom would ride over a whale's back like a Skil saw rides over your fingers.; 3/21/23, 7:27 PM
Ampersand said...: There are so many great comments here. I'd like to to recommend Nathaniel Philbrick's great book about the Essex. I came away from it thinking, which book mattered more to me in terms of illuminating human nature, Moby Dick, or this?

I've had the experience of being alone with my shipmates in the ocean. You are at the mercy of things you can't control, and you need the best technology. The insane courage of Columbus, de Gama, Magellan, and many others speaks to the cheapness of human life in times not that long ago.
.; 3/22/23, 12:13 AM
PigHelmet said...: ALL IS LOST is a great movie.; 3/22/23, 10:15 AM