10/04/2014 - 21st annual Whitebread race. Start time 8:45 am
We pull out of the New Suffolk Shipyard around 8:00 on the morning of 10/04/14. The race start was in Cutchogue harbor. It was a nice enough day for that time of year. The weather was overcast and the sea had swells. We had a great start for our division and made our way out of the harbor. We past Nassau Point heading Northeast through Jessup Neck toward Greenport. The racecourse was clockwise around Shelter Island.
As we pulled away from Greenport heading into Gardner’s Bay, I was up on the starboard side of the deck even with the mast. My position was to help flatten the boat as we were on a port tack. We did tack to a starboard run, but after a couple minutes we tacked backed again to the port. I was there for approximately 30 minutes, maybe more. The boat does not have life lines going around. I had to hold on to the decking/rail and mast stays to keep my position. For the most part I was looking forward watching as the swells build. They became larger and larger. I made mocked impersonations from the scene in Forest Gump when they were on the boat in a hurricane. I was getting very wet as salt water sprayed back and hit me head on. To a limited extent, I was blocking the others from the spray. But the cover I provided was virtually nil.
We came up on MOA buoy off Ram’s Head in Gardiners Bay. We needed to get in position to tack around the mark. The skipper (Bill) and Mike let me know to get ready. I needed to make my way back to the cockpit.
I turned slightly to my right, swung my legs to face the starboard side of the boat. I then started to inch my way back to the stern.
It was at this point that I was knocked backward and to the side and thrown from the starboard side to the port side of the boat. I almost skidded off the boat into the water. I was basically straddling the boat on my belly with my head pointing towards the port side with my feet pointing starboard. Not sure how close I was to the edge of the boat but I remember thinking “G$D D@MN! I am going to slide off into the “G$D D@MN!" water!”
I held on to whatever I could and Mike grabbed me. Between the two of us, I held on and crawled on my belly to the starboard side of the boat. My head was now facing the stern.
At this point we needed to tack because 1. It was the optimal point to maintain our position in the race. and 2. Not tacking would move us further away from any land mass.
Some of the other crew were yelling that we had to tack; others were yelling that we/I was not ready. I heard Bill saying “Dom’s not ready”. Mike was also yelling something along the lines of “Get ready!!..Get ready!” I am not sure if Jen’s voice was mixed in there somewhere. I yelled back something along the lines of “I‘m good I’m good. Tack Tack. I will roll into the cockpit… Go Go Do not wait for me, I am good”
Someone yelled “here we go” and I felt us turn. At this point I was lying on my belly with my upper torso somewhat in the cockpit. My lower torso and legs were on the deck. All in the same moment, I felt the boat turn to the starboard side. Feet scrabbled up to the rail. The boom started to swing. And I pulled myself forward, half falling and half crawling into the cockpit. Water poured all over me as it sloshed around the floor of the cockpit. I was forcibly thrown left and right against the bulkhead. My life preserver acted like a bumper, protecting me from getting really banged up.
I tried to get my footing. I pulled myself up reaching for the port side. The boat was almost at a 45 degree angle listing to the starboard side. As I got to my feet. Bill and Jen both commanded “free the Jib. We got to get the jib free”. I looked over and saw that the line to the jib was locked down.
The jib was draw tight as if we were heading into the wind. But we weren’t! The wind was pushing into the jib forcing the boat down on the starboard side. At the same time waves were hammering into the bottom port side of the hull. This was forcing us more over the starboard side. The starboard rail had breached and seawater was pouring in and out of the boat. I reached over and gave the jib line a yank. Nothing! It would not come loose! There was a lot of pressure on it. I moved closer and yanked with all the strength I could muster. The line came loose from the lock. The boat slammed back down and rolled over to the port side.
I lost my footing and slammed butt down on to the port side seat. At this point it seemed like we lost all steerage. Bill and Jen work the Main and Jib line respectively to get the sails under control. I am not sure if a wave hit us or a wind gust grabbed the sail. Maybe both! But we again listed hard to the starboard side. More water poured in. The starboard side seat/hatch cover was open and slamming around. Water was pouring into it. Bill yelled “we got to get it closed”. I reached over to try and shut it. But lines, cushions, a coiled hose and other stuff was floating in and out of the hatch.
I started pulling stuff aside, trying to throw it into the cabin. At some point I just started throwing the stuff out of the way not knowing where it was going. I got the hatch closed. The cockpit was filled with water. We had stopped listing violently left and right. But we were still rock hard. Someone said “we are swamping we need to pail this out.” I hard Mike say “F*ck, F*ck, F*ck! We were in this race and this happens again! I F*cking can’t believe this!”
I looked into the cabin for something to pail the water out with. The cabin was filled with water sloshing around. I sort of noticed that the boat stopped rocking and listing about. It had started to settle to the starboard / stern. Bill calmly said ”Were going down. Stay with the boat. Be sure to stay with the boat.”
At that moment, everything seemed to go in slow motion. I looked around. The stern was heaving in and out of the water. More “in” than “out”. I remember thinking “We can’t be sinking? These boats don’t sink. They swamp, but don’t sink!”
The boat keys came out of the ignition and were sloshing about. Bill said “Grab the keys”. It took a few tries but I snatched them up, stuck them in my right side windbreaker pocket and zipped it closed.
As I watched, the stern slipped under the water, first just a little. But then it slid back and down. The bow started to come up. At one point it was like sitting in a beach chair as the tide rolled in at super speed. We all started to scrabble around. We wanted to be free of the lines. At least that is what I was thinking. I was looking around trying to stay clear. I could see that Mike and Jen were up above me a little and to my left. I found myself standing on what I guessed was the mast or maybe the boom with water up to my neck. The boat was half submerged with the bow up in the air. I was holding on to some pole/sail combination. Bill was standing next to me on my right.
I looked over to him and said “I guess it is OK if I take a piss now.”
He said “I am”
All seemed to settle for a moment. The boat seemed to bob around like a cork in the water. We were all calm.
Not sure how long it took, but it seemed like the boat surged up a few inches and then started to slide down into the water. It made all sorts of hissing and creaking sounds as it went down. We all clamored up the deck to the bow…. Like climbing an escalator going in reverse. We were “moving” but just staying on the water’s surface.
At some point during this time, I turned to Bill and said: “Bill, I just want to let you know what a wonderful time I am having!” He gave me a thin smile and we both just kept “climbing”.
We got to the front (top) of the boat and then it was gone. The boat’s tip slowly spun and rocked too and fro and then it was gone from sight. I thought for a moment to try to hold on to it but I could not reach it. This was just as well since I later learned that the boat settled to the bottom on its keel in about 50’ to 60’ of water.
I am told that the boat sunk in approximately 2 - 3 minutes.
The four of us we were now floating free in the water. I was less scared and more pissed off. The life preserver I had on did not fit real well and kept slipping up and over my head. I had to keep one arm around my shoulders and neck to keep it in place. Waves kept smacking over me and throwing me about. I can only guess that because of my prior years of scuba diving, I stayed calm. I just kept timing the waves trying to avoid taking in a lung full of sea water. Even so, I swallowed a fair amount of sea water.
I remember thinking that there was a real possibility that I was going to die. I kept kicking and trying to stay above water. Leaning on my back to float. Even so, I was not scared of dying, just pissed off that I could die. This made me try harder and my mind raced through next steps on how to get out of the water. Things like “Is the tide coming in? I think so.” and “I should be able to float in. Maybe end up on Shelter Island.”
Boats past by with their crews all scrambling around. Each trying to avoid hitting us and at the same time asking if we needed help and is anyone hurt. They were confused as to why these people were in the water. I learned latter that most did not realize that a boat had sunk since it happened so fast. When they saw us, it was confusing. Some did not see all four of us, just one or two people in the water. All thought we had fallen off a boat. But which boat? Why had it not stopped to pick up its lost crew member(s)!
We floated about in two groups. Jen and Mike where together. Bill and I were together about 20 or 30 feet away from them. Two boats came about. The Sea Breeze and Tidelines. They moved into help rescue us. Jen and Mike were closest to Sea Breeze. Sea Breeze threw out a rescue ring which was actually more of a horseshoe shape. We all made our way towards it.
Jen was the first to get a hand on the rescue line followed by Mike. I made my way to the “horseshoe” end as did Bill. My mind immediately refocused to the job at hand. As stupid as this sound, I have been in similar situations such as this. Between my scuba diving days and in general days on a boat, it happens that you have multiple people sharing a line to get on the boat.
By now I was very fatigued. It was hard to hold on to the line. There was a fair amount of torgue as the Sea Breeze was under power to keep steerage.
http://suffolktimes.timesreview.com/2014/10/52674/sailboat-sinks-during-whitebread-race-crew-rescued-by-fellow-racers/
