Tales of St. John and the Caribbean

From Tales of St. John and the Caribbean
(Note: The Sea Breeze is no longer in existence. The bar has been completely renovated and is now the  Sweet Plantains restaurant.)
Trinidad Charlie and I arrived at Sea Breeze around 8:30 one Sunday morning and were waiting around for breakfast to be served. The place was filling up with all kinds of salty characters, early morning drinkers, sailors, live-a-boarders, Coral Bay locals and the occasional tourist. This one guy, who seemed to know Charlie, sat with us for a while. In the course of conversation he told us this story:

He had sailed out of St. Thomas on his way to the Azores. He was all alone; single handing a wooden sloop which, although quite old, was still, apparently, in excellent condition. He rode the tradewinds north and west to get to the latitudes of the prevailing westerlies which would then carry him east across the Atlantic.

He was about 100 miles north of the Turks and Caicos, and it was clear sailing with calm seas, steady winds and fine weather. He calculated his position and determined that he was far away from any recognized shipping lanes as well as from any land, shallow reefs or  other navigational hazards.

The sails were well set and he lashed the tiller down watching the boat self-steer north, north west with no problems. He decided it would be safe to go below and take a nap.

He awoke in the night to find the boat filled with water. The seas were coming over the main deck, and it was obvious that the vessel was sinking.

What happened? He doesn’t know. Perhaps a main plank came loose, but whatever it was, there was no time to do anything but abandon ship and avoid being trapped below in the cabin.

No time to radio an SOS, he donned an ocean life vest and jumped overboard. He watched by the light of the moon as the boat sailed on ahead of him, gracefully under full sail, for about 100 yards before going under. The batteries were still functioning, and he could see the running lights and cabin lights shining surreally under the water as the boat slowly sunk.

The life jacket, which would hold most of his body out of the water, was equipped with a flashlight, a whistle and an emergency radio beacon, none of which seemed too helpful so far from any land or commercial activity. Realizing his position, alone in the dark of night in the middle of the ocean, fright and panic set in and took over. He thought about sharks and he said he felt like a piece of bait at the end of a fishing line. He soon fainted or passed out or fell asleep.

He regained consciousness in the light of the next morning. He heard a sound; and then he saw God coming down from the sky… on a rope!

God turned out to be a United States Coast Guard lieutenant. A Coast Guard helicopter just happened to be in the area on an unusual mission. It was unusual because flights were rarely scheduled so far from the helicopter’s base of operations. The crew was just at the point of turning back when they heard the faint signal of the emergency beacon. There was scarcely enough fuel to return to base, and there was only a short amount of time for a search and rescue mission, but luckily, the Coast Guard team managed to find and rescue the sailor and make a safe return to the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

He says that he still sails, but only on perfect days, when there is not a cloud in the sky and never very far from the sight of land.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 29th, 2008 at 9:59 am and is filed under Life on St. John USVI, St John and Virgin Islands Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.