A giant whale sank a yacht: a wonderful rescue story

An ordinary start to an extraordinary adventure

Rick Rodriguez in the company of three friends decided to make a three-week transition. The beginning of the route was in the Galapagos Islands, and the company planned to end the transition in French Polynesia. The guys left the marina on March 13, 2023 aboard their 13-meter sailboat called Raindancer.

It would seem that an ideal cruise with its own difficulties - the crew had to go through a decent part of the Pacific Ocean. However, for friends, this should not have been a big problem. 

Around 13:30 local time, the team took lunch. The boys were quietly eating their veggie pizza while Rick was on watch. The wind was strong enough, but comfortable for sailing, the speed of the boat was about 6 knots. It looks like it could go wrong...

The start of an unexpected journey

Alana Litz, Rick's friend and crew member, dined with everyone. However, her attention was attracted by a strange movement on the port side at the stern. In an interview with The Washington Post, Alana recalls: “It was only later that I realized what exactly I saw then. It was Bride's whale! It was 12-14 meters long, a little more than our boat.”

A moment later, a loud bang sounded, the whale hit the hull of the yacht with its tail. Bianca Brateanu was preparing food in the galley at the time, she was thrown away during the impact of the whale on the side of the boat. Then the girl looked out the porthole, which plunged under the water and saw another smaller whale. After the larger whale struck the yacht, Rick noticed that there was a bleeding wound on his back.

The boat shook violently, an alarm sounded - the integrity of the hull was violated. Rick at this point finished eating the second slice of pizza. There was no other way out, except for emergency evacuation. Due to a hole in the hull, the boat quickly began to take on water, there was little time. While the others were packing, Rick tried to fix the hole in the hull with the help of improvised means, but nothing came of it.

Rick gave a distress signal and turned on the EPIRB emergency beacon. The signal was received by the Coast Guard in Peru, who forwarded it to the US Coast Guard. But travelers did not know about this yet.

Life-saving equipment was quickly assembled and the raft and inflatable boat were thrown into the water. Literally 15 minutes later, the team was already looking at the remains of the yacht, which were hiding in the depths of the ocean.

Rick recalls: “There was no fear. We quickly gathered the essentials and evacuated. You know, everything was under control - as much as possible in principle for a boat that went under water in 15 minutes.

Luck and skill

We can say that the team did an excellent job with the first stage of the rescue - they ended up on a life raft with the necessary set of the most important things in the shortest possible time without haste. However, Rick still made one mistake. The battery charge level in the equipment left much to be desired.

Rodriguez wrote to his friend Tommy: “This is not a joke, Tommy. We encountered a whale, the ship sank. Report as many boats as you can. The battery charge is extremely low.” 

Rick felt like he was in Herman Melville's Moby Dick. At the same time, the guy was glad that now he has modern technologies in service, and the whales have lost all interest in travelers and sailed away in an unknown direction.

Rodriguez recalls: “There were no emotions. Everyone was minding their own business, the only thought that was, "Damn, I can't believe this is actually happening." However, this did not prevent us from coherently carrying out all rescue activities that were within our power.”

By Rick's calculations, there should have been enough water supplies for a week, and food for almost a month. However, this did not eliminate another problem - the charge of their batteries was low. Their communication station (Iridium GO) was only 32 percent charged, the phone the station was connected to was 40 percent charged, and the power bank had 25 percent charge.

The team notified their loved ones about the problem, and also tried to get in touch with other yachtsmen and rescue services. Despite the danger of the situation, Rick assured everyone that everything would be fine. 

A well-coordinated team led by a real skipper

A few words should be said about the skipper - Rick Rodriguez. The 31-year-old from Florida has been a professional captain for 10 years and also worked as a mate and engineer on a yacht. A three-week transition in March 2023 was supposed to be the fulfillment of his lifelong dream. 

As the rescuers said: “If it were not for the well-coordinated work of the team, as well as the professionalism of Rodriguez as a captain, the outcome of the shipwreck could have been more deplorable. The ship's crew was well trained and equipped to hold out until the rescue ship arrived."

All team members were trained before going to sea. Rick and Bianca took courses in high seas survival from experienced skippers and lifeguards. Alana Litz formerly served in the Canadian Army Fire Department. The least experienced was the fourth crew member, Fisher. However, Rodriguez noted that "he is a very balanced guy who does not lose his composure in the most critical situations."

Rick described his location in detail to his brother, and also asked that the information about the wreck be passed on to Joyce, another yachtsman who was nearby. Due to the low charge of the communication devices, Rick turned them off. In order to remain visible to nearby boats, Rodriguez turned on the Globalstar SPOT tracker, which transmitted the position of the life raft every few minutes, and every hour he transmitted a distress signal using a VHF radio.

When Rick turned on the Iridium GO again, he saw Joyce's response: "We got you, buddy."

Happy coincidence

Otherwise, the following event cannot be called a happy accident. The travelers' yacht Raindancer followed almost the same route as almost two dozen other yachts. These boats participated in the World ARC round-the-world sailing regatta. Everyone joined in the search for the missing - the Boatwatch network of radio amateurs, which searches for people lost at sea, the athletes of the regatta, merchant ships passing nearby.

The closest was the merchant ship Dong-A Maia, which was passing 90 miles south of the wreck. It alerted everyone that it was changing course and heading in search of the missing. 

Joyce did not let up and typed to Rick: “A lot of boats and ships are coming towards you. We still caught you, brother!” Rick and the team were looking forward to the meeting. Although the ocean that day was kind to the crew of the sunken Raindancer, finding a life raft with a small inflatable boat even knowing their approximate location is like looking for a needle in a haystack. 

After 9 hours on the horizon, Rick saw the running lights of the Rolling Stones catamaran. He contacted the ship's crew by radio, fired a flare and activated a personal beacon transmitting coordinates. Somewhere nearby, the 250-meter Dong-A Maia stood ready, but it was decided to rescue Rick and company on a smaller ship.

Miraculous Salvation and Afterword

On board the Rolling Stones, travelers were fed, given clean clothes and the opportunity to rest and gain strength. Rick says: “I didn't think about the boat sinking while we were in the open ocean. But after I woke up on board the Rolling Stones, it dawned on me that I had literally lost my dream - a yacht that I dreamed about for about 10 years and spent a lot of time trying to bring it to mind. However, I am alive, the team is alive and this is the most important thing!” 

Photo: Rescued crew dine aboard the Rolling Stones

Team Rodriguez was much more fortunate than many. Some crews do not even have time to launch life rafts into the water, and some cannot be found even after many days of searching. However, there is a downside to this success. 

In many ways, it was the coherence of the crew, the ability to remain calm during a critical situation, as well as the skills acquired in survival and boat management courses that helped the team survive. Naturally, without a fortunate combination of circumstances, such a beautiful story would hardly have turned out, but without the skills and abilities that the guys developed in themselves, salvation would have been much more difficult.

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24.03.2023