On November 25, 2019, Chris Carney and his two-man听crew,听Pete Brown听and Jun 鈥淪umi鈥 Sumiyama, set off from Japan on their way to Hawaii in a 42-foot sailboat, the Coco-Haz III.听They had four weeks to cross the world鈥檚 largest ocean. The boat鈥檚 owner, a retired Japanese dentist, needed the trip done in a hurry鈥攈e鈥檇 lose a boat slip he鈥檇 rented if it听didn鈥檛 arrive in time. Carney didn鈥檛 think they听would make it on schedule, even if everything went right. But things went far worse than he imagined when two catastrophes left them stranded in the middle of the sea.
Here is Carney鈥檚 story, as told to 国产吃瓜黑料.
It was morning when it happened. I got听my raingear on and went听up on the deck to听make some changes to our course. I stuck my head up, and I couldn鈥檛 believe it鈥攖he mast was gone.
One of the shrouds that connected it to the ship just broke, I guess from metal fatigue. I鈥檝e been sailing most of my life, and not only has this never happened on any boat I鈥檝e been on, but I don鈥檛 know anybody else who鈥檚 had this happen to them, the mast just snapping like that.
It was December 19, and we were about a thousand miles from Oahu, Hawaii. We had lots of fuel, so we thought we could just motor in. The next day, a storm hit us. The seas were at 10 to 13 feet, nothing too dangerous. But as soon as night fell, there was one wave that went by, and we all looked at each other thinking, Whoa, that was a big one.
The next wave听didn鈥檛 just roll us, it picked us up and threw us. We landed upside down in the sea.
It was incredibly violent. What they show on TV, when the camera goes up and down and things are falling? It doesn鈥檛 do it justice. Stuff was flying everywhere. The battery came blasting out of the engine compartment and shot through the cabin like a rocket. We got thrown around pretty good, and we were all bruised and cut. Sumi hit his head. We didn鈥檛 know how bad it was until later.
The three of us were standing on the ceiling, and the water was coming in fast. At first it was听shin-deep, and then it came up to our knees. In no time听it was at听our thighs. The hatch was up in the front, underwater. I kept picturing what that would be like, opening that hatch and coming out on the surface during a storm. We would be in the middle of the ocean with nothing.
I was sure that this was听where we were going to die, right here in this storm, in this water. I was thinking, God, this boat鈥檚 got to right itself. Sailboats are designed to flip back over if they roll, but you never know what鈥檚 going to happen听at sea.
Finally, it did roll. But even though the boat was upright, we were waist-deep in water, with the storm sending in more every time a wave broke over us. The engine was flooded. Most of our fuel went into the ocean. We lost our navigation, all our electronics, nearly all of our fresh water鈥攅verything. We were dead in the water and adrift.
We did our best to bail. The waves were slamming into us, and听the hull started to crack. If we had a breach, the boat was going to sink in about 30 seconds.
The storm didn鈥檛 break, and it was miserable. We were cold, and everything was wet. No dry clothes, no dry beds. We went on starvation rations, like five almonds per day. By rationing what little water and food we had left, we thought we could make it maybe 40 or 50 days. I had never seriously faced my mortality before. Everyone knows they鈥檙e听going to die. But they don鈥檛 think that they are going die in 50 days.
The storm finally broke after 36 hours. We estimated that we had about 700 miles to go, so we rigged up a makeshift sail from the boat鈥檚 Bimini top, kind of like a convertible top for a car. With that, we could make one or two knots, but if the current is one or two knots against you, you鈥檙e not going anywhere.
At that point, our biggest issue was morale. Each of us was entertaining our worst fears. Sumi kind of withdrew. He had a severe concussion, and he was sleeping 18 hours a day. He became very silent.听Pete, who鈥檚听from Tennessee, kept coming up with these songs on the banjo. They were pretty morose. He was singing about how he鈥檇 never see his family again听and how the sea was going to get him.
I gave us about a 10 percent chance. Pete was giving us much less. We had a compass听but no maps and only a moderate indication of where we might be.听Dead reckoning is a sketchy way to navigate;听it鈥檚 just guessing the direction you鈥檙e going and how fast you鈥檙e traveling, but that鈥檚 what we did. The wind rarely shifts in that part of the ocean, so we used little ribbons tied around the boat to see where it was coming from. At night听we relied on the feel of the wind on our cheeks. We thought we were at about 24 degrees north latitude when the rogue wave hit, so I figured that if we got down to 21 degrees, we might end up in the shipping lanes.
During the days, our time was occupied by tinkering with things. One guy would be driving, one guy who had been on watch the night before would be napping, and the other would be tinkering. Nothing we did could get that engine working. The satellite phone was wet, so we put it in rice at first and then dried it听in the sun. To no avail. It never did get working.
I was sure that this was听where we were going to die, right here in this storm, in this water. I was听thinking, God, this boat鈥檚 got to right itself.
Out of the 15 or so flashlights we had on board, only one was fully waterproof, so it was the only one that survived. At night听you could use the moon and the stars to navigate. But occasionally听you鈥檇 have to look at the compass. So that flashlight was key.
One night听Pete fumbled for the flashlight and knocked it into听the ocean. It was floating in the water, and we were heading away from it. Pete jumped in and swam. He was getting pretty far away from the boat. When he found it, he put it in his mouth, but the light was facing him, blinding him. He couldn鈥檛 see to swim back. I tried to wake up Sumi so I could go in and help, but he was in a trance, still concussed. I was screaming to Pete:听鈥淪wim to my voice!鈥 I was thinking I鈥檇 have to turn the boat around and go back for him. But he swam hard and made it. His tooth was chipped from biting down on that flashlight.
Two days later, we finally had some luck. The wind magically started coming from behind us, and we made headway. Each day听I would wake up and think, This a beautiful day to get rescued.
By day nine, we were feeling pretty good, and we were all inside trying to figure out how much drinking water was left. I started thinking we had spent too much time inside, and I popped my head up, and there was a freaking ship鈥攔ight there, just a half-mile away.听We sent up rockets and smoke bombs听and stood on the deck screaming and waving. But it didn鈥檛 see us听and just passed by.
Pete was supposed to have been听up on deck at that moment. He felt pretty bad after that. He鈥檚 normally not a potty mouth, but he started swearing, saying, 鈥淭his is a fucking shitshow.鈥 It was the first ship we鈥檇 seen in three weeks, and it just went right by us.
But at least we knew that we were in a shipping lane. That gave us some hope.
Sumi started to feel better. His hand and head were both numb, and he was still concussed. But he was sleeping less and more upbeat. He was driving the next day when we saw a second ship.
It was a container ship called Nobility. It was a long way off. So听we ripped the mirrors from the bathroom and used them to reflect the sun to signal the ship. For the longest time, it didn鈥檛 see us. We thought it might just pass us by, like the last one. Luckily, it eventually changed course, slowed way down, and blew its horn.
This was December听29. The Coast Guard had been searching since听the 24th and was听going to cancel the search on the 30th. The Nobility was headed to Korea. It took the Coast Guard about four hours to find the Kalamazoo, a Good Samaritan vessel that could bring us to Hawaii instead. It came up alongside us. They threw ropes down and tied us up.
I was reluctant to leave. I had never abandoned a boat in the middle of the ocean. You know how they say captains should go down with the ship? There鈥檚 an element of shame attached to not completing your voyage.
If I thought there was a 10 percent chance that we could find Hawaii, I probably would have said, 鈥淟et鈥檚 just take some water and we鈥檒l be on our way.鈥 Pete felt the same. He said, 鈥淥ur mission is a failure.鈥 But if we died out there, then our mission would have definitely been听a failure.
We climbed on the Kalamazoo at sunset. The first thing they gave us was some steak and potatoes, which was their Sunday meal. As we ate, we laughed about our twist of fate. Just a day before, we were pretty sure we were not going to make it.
If someone finds themselves in the same spot I was in, I would say to use your noggin. Make your best guess. Say, 鈥淭his is our plan, and let鈥檚 stick to it.鈥 That鈥檚听what we did. After ten days, we were only eight miles off our guess of where we were.
While we were lost, I thought about how much I love my family. I鈥檝e got a two-year-old son and a girlfriend in the Philippines. Thankfully, he will never have to say, 鈥淚 never knew my father. He died when I was two, lost at sea.鈥 Now I鈥檝e got a chance to watch him grow up. I cherish the time that I have to spend with them. Maybe I took them for granted before? I don鈥檛 know.
My girlfriend has said she wasn鈥檛 worried. She said, 鈥淵ou promised me you鈥檇 come back.鈥 Isn鈥檛 that what everybody says?