Essentially they were traveling at night across the Mona Passage - not an easy passage - from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico. They were with another boat but were five miles ahead at the time. Things were going along well when about 28 miles off the coast of Puerto Rico, an alarm went off saying that there was a dangerous target nearby. They looked and looked but saw no boats. Again the alarm sounded. Again they looked all around and saw nothing. Then suddenly a huge dark form of a ship was bearing down on them from behind on the starboard side. Don throttled up and turned the wheel so as to avoid the ship hitting them directly. It was sort of a side-swipe. Unfortunately the underbelly of the ship "grabbed" their mast, rigging, and stanchions (side rails) and ripped these out as they bounced and were tossed along the ship's side.
The good news is that Plane to Sea was not ruptured and stayed afloat. Don radioed the ship but got no response. They felt that no one on the ship even knew what had happened. Their buddy boat heard the calls, dropped sails, and motored to catch up to Plane to Sea. Don contacted the Coast Guard who luckily had a cutter on the west side of Puerto Rico, which was unusual. First a Coast Guard helicopter came and hovered until the cutter came. Their buddy boat continued to PR since they were in the hands of the CG. Janis boarded the cutter which towed Plane to Sea with Don aboard to Mayaquez. Don cut on his foot, but amazingly they had no other injuries.
They have rented a car and are staying in motels. They visited us twice while we were in Salinas and were able to spend two nights with us. We had a great time together and Janis says that it did them a lot of good to visit. We spoke with them the day before yesterday and they were able to stay aboard Plane to Sea overnight, which pleased them.
The Coast Guard was fantastic with the help they've provided including helping to identify the vessel - a 650-foot long ferry - that hit them. They are in communication with the ship's insurance company and hope to work out a settlement soon. As one would imagine, it's been quite difficult for them, but with their Texan "git her done" attitude, they're making progress and feeling like things are going in the right direction. They hope to get the boat fixed and continue on, though they know that they may have to remain in Puerto Rico for the hurricane season. There happens to be an well-protected, mangrove-lined hurricane hole not far from them should they need to find a safe haven. And Puerto Rico is a great place with lots of services available.
For our friends and family reading this, we don’t want you
to worry. One important piece of
equipment that we have is radar. When we
are on watch at night, we frequently check the radar which picks up ships,
sailboats and other obstructions such as oil rigs and land forms 12 miles out
and farther. We also have an AIS
receiver which gives us specific data such as the ship’s name, heading and
speed. When we spot a ship on our screen, we determine the course of the ship. If it looks as though it will
come within a couple of miles, we radio the ship in plenty of time and ask
if they see us. Sailboats have the right
of way, so we make sure that they see us so they can alter their course if
needed, which they must do. If we were
not to get a response, which has never happened so far, we would dramatically
alter course to avoid a collision. We
also just purchased an AIS transponder that will transmit a signal from us
which will show our boat on the screen of any ships that are in our area. That's one of the new pieces of electronics that we just bought and will pick up in St. Thomas. This will give us added protection. Please do not worry. Fortunately, we are done with long passages
for awhile as we make our way down the island chain.
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