If you had read the SailNet discussion completely, (which I FULLY understand not doing), you would have also read more statements about their Rescue Boats:
- They were suspended on cables on each side - I was not talking about the one on a ramp.
- When they entered the Canadian Port, they had to lower and raise one to follow Port Regulations; which proves they can be easily deployed.
- While this deployment was happening, I asked the Captain of the KJ why they hadn’t deployed one to retrieve me. First he said they couldn’t retrieve it because the waves would have made it very difficult / impossible to reattach the hoisting cables. To which I responded, couldn’t you have towed it AFTER hoisting ALL the people out of it from the stern of the Kim Jacob? He looked down and said: We’re not the Coast Guard, and I didn’t think of that. Which indicates he, like me, realized that was a viable process.
- Granted, the 2 crew who would have deployed in their Rescue boat would have been exposed to more discomfort (it was a sunny day, not bad weather), than just staying on deck, but their exposure to danger would have been absolutely minimal.
- If you were the person in the ocean, drowning, you too would have wanted the only human beings near you to use the equipment they had to save your life. Trying to rationalize letting the person in the water drown, while you take pictures of him, on a sunny day, would clearly strike you - the person drowning - as a cold thing to do.
A couple other points should also be cleared up:
- I wanted to transfer only my wife onto the KJ, since there was no real reason to abandon ship.
- The Captain of the KJ and I discussed the plan prior to their actual actions on our behalf, for them to go outside of our ‘sea anchor’ and use a grappling hook to grab it. Then, use that line to pull us to their stern. So, that is why I had not pulled the sea anchor in as they approached.
- On their second attempt, they intersected the line, which quickly drew us alongside them, and pulled us forward until we were squished from the waves pushing us up, into their anchor housing, which smashed our boat like a giant hammer. I couldn’t cut the sea anchor line unless I had responded to do so, in a very short period of time. Sadly, I did not, and within seconds, that idea became a deadly one.
- The KJ kept circling me as I sank and re-emerged, with me on their windward side, though I was screaming to them to approach me from the other side. The problem was that the wind kept pushing their buoy back toward them, as a person threw it at me, sometimes even coming right back, hitting the ‘thrower’. Had they approached, with me down wind from them, throwing a buoy at me would have been carried toward me, by the wind, instead of rendering the thrown buoy dysfunctional.
Overall, I made the largest mistake of my life by abdicating my role as Captain, for my role as a husband, to the woman who had it with our cruise and wanted off the boat following the ‘issues’ we were experiencing, on our way to Europe.
I followed that error up with more errors too.
I DID thank the KJ crew and officers profusely. But, simply because I managed to live through this deadly mess, does not mean WE (all of us) can’t learn from this.
And finally, if the roles were reversed, and I was onboard a boat, with someone drowning near my boat, on a sunny day, yes, with some waves too, I surely would have utilized all of my available equipment to rescue that person. And THAT is what I naively ‘expected’ of my fellow man.