The crew of a sailing ship is lucky to be alive after a massive whale struck their vessel, sinking the ship and forcing them to spend 10 hours in the Pacific Ocean waiting for someone to rescue them from the same waters that inspired Herman’s Moby Dick. Melville.
The four friends, led by Florida resident and Newcastle, England native Rick Rodriguez, 31, planned to sail some 3,500 miles on Rodriguez’s 44-foot ship, The Raindancer, from the Galapagos Islands to French Polynesia. over the course of three weeks.
On the afternoon of March 13, coinciding with the 13th day of his voyage, Rick Rodríguez, who had been living on the ship, saw his vegetarian pizza lunch interrupted by a noise.
“The second pizza was just out of the oven and I was dipping a slice in ranch dressing,” Rodriguez said. “The rear half of the boat rose violently up and to starboard.”
Slowly but surely, the friends discovered that the whale with its side fin in the air had crashed into The Raindancer. In 15 minutes they were sunk.
Rick Rodriguez (pictured right), 31, and his crew had to survive in a lifeboat for 10 hours after a whale sank their boat.
Within seconds, an alarm sounded, telling Rodriguez and his boatmates that they were taking on water.
All the members of the group had experience in navigation, so each one left in an attempt to save themselves, and Rodríguez began by sending an emergency call through the dispatch.
Finally, through a radio beacon that sends distress signals to a network of rescuers around the world, the Peruvian Coast Guard heard them and notified their US counterparts monitoring the Pacific Ocean.
The rest of the crew: Canadian Alana Litz, 33; German Simon Fischer, 25; their compatriot Bianca Brateanu, 25, a native of Newcastle, all tried to muster what rations they could grab, including food, fresh water and emergency equipment.
“There was no emotion,” Rodríguez said. “As we were doing things, we all had that feeling, ‘I can’t believe this is happening,’ but it didn’t stop us from doing what we had to do and getting ready to jump ship.”
With only safety supplies, including a week’s worth of fresh water and three weeks’ worth of fresh food, and no passports, they stepped out of The Raindancer and onto a lifeboat.
His only contact with the outside world was a phone infrequently charged via an external battery coupled with a satellite WiFi hotspot.
Rodriguez texted a friend and fellow sailor Tommy Joyce, who was on the same route, that “this is not a joke, tell as many ships as you can” and texted brother Roger to “say mom that everything will be fine”, according to the Washington Post.
The four friends, led by Florida resident and Newcastle, England native Rick Rodriguez, planned to sail some 3,500 miles on Rodriguez’s ship, The Raindancer, from the Galapagos Islands to French Polynesia over the course of three weeks.
On the afternoon of March 13, coinciding with the 13th day of his voyage, Rick Rodriguez, who had been living on the ship, had his vegetarian pizza lunch interrupted by a noise that turned out to be a whale hitting the ship.
The entire crew of The Raindancer: Rodríguez (pictured right), Canadian Alana Litz (pictured center right), 33; German Simon Fischer (photo left), 25; fellow Newcastle native Bianca Brateanu (pictured centre-left), 25
Not hearing from Joyce, she asked her brother to send her a message via WhatsApp and then turned off her phone and WiFi hotspot to conserve running low power.
Two hours later, he turned it back on and saw a message from Joyce saying, ‘We’ve got you, buddy.’
After a total of 10 hours adrift at sea, they were found by Geoff Stone, the captain of a 45-foot dinghy called the Rolling Stones.
Stone, a Wisconsin native, was 35 miles away when he received one of his emergency calls and coordinated a rescue with the Peruvian Coast Guard.
“The sea wasn’t terrible, but we’ve never done a search and rescue,” he said, but they were able to do it for the crew of The Raindancer.
After a total of 10 hours adrift at sea, they were found by Geoff Stone, the captain of a 45-foot dinghy called the Rolling Stones.
Rodriguez had been living in The Raindancer, as well as doing the three-week trek
Rodriguez was heartbroken to lose The Raindancer, whom he compared to a ‘good friend’
The Rolling Stones crew gave them fresh bread, deodorant, clothes, and allowed them to use the showers.
“I feel very lucky and grateful that they rescued us so quickly,” Rodríguez said. “We were in the right place at the right time to go down.”
However, he was saddened to lose both his ship and his home, which he called after a good friend.
“I have worked very hard to be here and have been dreaming of making landfall in the Bay of the Virgins in the Marquesas in my own boat for about 10 years. And at 1,000 nautical miles my boat sinks,” Rodríguez said.
About 1,200 reports of whale and ship collisions have been made since a database was launched in 2007.
The four-person crew is expected to arrive in French Polynesia on Wednesday, just one day after their initial three-week schedule.