Whale of a Tale

Ahoy! Welcome to I’dRatherBeSailing, the newsletter written by sailors who don’t have PhD’s, but always carry PFD’s. Lets clip in and get to it.

In today’s letter we have:

• Story of the Week: A Whale of a Tale

• Whale Thats Crazy: Historical Sinkings

• Sailing Snippets: Foldable Sailboat, and Antigua Megayacht Cleanup

Whale of a Tale

Rick Rodriguez's fate resembled a chapter from Moby-Dick. However, his distress calls were not a joke. In his first text messages from a life raft, he expressed his dire circumstances to his friend and fellow sailor, Tommy Joyce. Rodriguez warned, "Tommy, this is no joke… We hit a whale, and the ship went down." He also urged Tommy to "tell as many boats as you can." Battery on his phone, Iridium Go, and backup battery bank were all dangerously low.

On March 13, 13 days into what was anticipated to be a three-week crossing from the Galápagos to French Polynesia on his 44-foot sailboat, Raindancer, Rodriguez and three friends were eating a pizza for lunch around 1:30 p.m. Rodriguez, who was on watch, heard a loud BANG while the ship was sailing about six knots in good winds. "The back half of the boat lifted violently upward and to starboard" mid-slice dip into ranch dressing.

The sinking took only 15 minutes.

Within five seconds of impact, an alarm went off, indicating that water was filling the bottom of the boat, and Rodriguez could see it rushing in from the stern. Water was above the floor within minutes. Rodriguez made a mayday call on the VHF, and set off the EPIRB. Officials in Peru, who were alerted by the distress signal, picked it up and alerted the U.S. Coast Guard District 11 in Alameda, California, which is in charge of U.S. vessels in the Pacific.

Alana Litz was the first to notice what she thinks was a Bryde's whale as long as the boat. She said, "I saw a massive whale off the port aft side with its side fin up in the air." Rodriguez looked to see it bleeding from the upper third of its body as it disappeared under the water. Bianca Brateanu was below cooking and got thrown in the collision. She went up to the deck while looking to the starboard and saw a whale with a small dorsal fin 30 to 40 feet off that side, leading the group to wonder if there were at least two whales present.

The crew launched the inflatable life raft and the dinghy, then realized they needed to drop the sails so that the line attaching the life raft didn't snap as it was dragged behind the still-moving Raindancer. Rodriguez grabbed his snorkeling gear and a tarp and jumped into the water to see if he could plug the holes, but it was futile. The area near the prop had been completely bashed in. As he swam to the life raft, he looked back to see the mast slipping beneath the waves.

Before abandoning ship, the crew executed an admirably calm and level headed evacuation:

• Launched life raft and dinghy.

• Loaded out safety equipment, and gear.

• Loaded emergency food and bottled water.

• Filled all bottles, tea kettles, and pots before salt water rose above sink.

They spent only ten hours drifting about nine miles before a civilian ship picked them up from the Pacific Ocean in a seamless pre-dawn maneuver. The Raindancers’ speedy rescue separated them from comparable catastrophes, and a combination of experience, technology, and luck contributed to their salvation.

The rescuing ship, The Rolling Stones, had showers and freshly caught wahoo sushi for the weary Raindancer crew.

Historical Whale Sinkings

The Raindancer's story occurred in the same region where Herman Melville's ship Essex was heading west from the Galápagos, when it was rammed by a sperm whale in 1820. The captain and some of the crew endured about three months and had to resort to cannibalism before being rescued. (Not to spoil the ending of Moby-Dick).

Kate Wilson, a spokeswoman for the International Whaling Commission, stated that since a worldwide database launched in 2007, there have been approximately 1,200 reports of whales colliding with boats. The U.S. Coast Guard noted that collisions causing significant damage are rare, adding that the last rescue due to damage from a whale was in 2009, when a 40-foot J-Boat sank off Baja California, with the crew rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter.

As sailors, we couldn’t help wondering how often a sailing vessel has gone down because of a whale, so we did a little digging. Left out are any whaling ship incidents because, well, you can hardly blame the whale. The last one will make any sailor go why did they name the ship that?

Essex (1820): Perhaps the most famous incident of a ship being sunk by a whale, the Essex was a whaling ship from Nantucket that was attacked by a sperm whale in the South Pacific. The whale rammed the ship twice, causing it to sink and leaving the crew stranded at sea for months.

The Tusitala (1889): Schooner that was sunk by a sperm whale in the Pacific Ocean. The whale rammed the boat multiple times, causing it to sink. The crew was rescued by another passing ship.

The Gorch Fock (1951): German sailing ship that was sunk by a whale in the Atlantic Ocean. The whale struck the ship, causing significant damage and forcing the crew to abandon ship.

The Naiad (1838): Schooner that was sunk by a sperm whale off the coast of Chile. The whale struck the boat, causing it to sink. The crew was rescued by another passing ship.

The Dauphin (1830): Schooner that was sunk by a whale in the Pacific Ocean. The whale rammed the boat multiple times, causing it to sink. The crew was able to escape in lifeboats and were rescued several days later.

The Ada May (1913): Schooner that was sunk by a whale off the coast of Maine. The whale struck the boat, causing it to sink. The crew was able to escape in lifeboats and were rescued by local fishermen.

The Swift (1887): Schooner that was sunk by a whale off the coast of Massachusetts. The whale struck the boat, causing it to sink. The crew was able to escape in lifeboats and were rescued by a passing ship.

The Minnie A. Caine (1907): Schooner that was sunk by a whale off the coast of California. The whale struck the boat, causing it to sink. The crew was able to escape in lifeboats and were rescued by local fishermen.

Essex II (1980): Sailboat that was attacked by a sperm whale off the coast of Portugal. The whale struck the boat multiple times, causing it to sink. The crew was able to escape in a life raft and were rescued by a passing ship.

Sailing Snippets

Swingin’ in the Riggin’: A man watches the sunset from a swing made with a skateboard seat hung from the mast of the stranded sailboat, Lucky Us 2.

The sailboat beached Feb. 12 in Holmes Beach near 79th Street after its crew was rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard during a storm the night before. The boat owner, Michigan resident James Golembiewski, launched “Help Unbeach ‘Lucky Us 2’” on the GoFundMe platform to raise money for the vessel’s removal. He was ordered by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission to remove the boat but an appeal awaits a hearing. The money campaign had raised $5,983 toward its $15,000 goal as of March 18.

Mainsail Maché: The Fully Foldable Sailboat. A very small, completely foldable sailboat that can be loaded on top of a car, called the Paper-Otto. She is made of marine plywood, and the folding joints sealed with hypalon fabric. Read the full reporting here

Bill of Sail: Antigua Senate passes bill to green-light sale of an abandoned superyacht. They have been unpacking what to do about a Russian-sanctioned megayacht. We previously reported on the thorny issue of what happens to these boats, and who has to bare the cost. Read the full report on the local Antigua site here.

Orca You Kidding Me: Sailboat Attacked and Disabled by Orcas in Strait of Gibraltar, the report here

That’s all for today, stay safe out there you salty dogs.