S/V Scirocco Mission with a McMurdo 406 EPIRB - West Plana Cay - 11.15.05
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Details of the Scirocco & USCG Rescue in the Bahamas
Owner: Phillippe Comte
"After waiting for the right pre-frontal winds in Georgetown, I decided to head out on November 10th to Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos onboard my 1974 duFour 34 Sloop. The winds were light and I was able to sail around Long Island and close to the Crooked Island passage, but the cold front caught up to me.
I anchored on the lee of West Plana Cay, waiting for the strong NE winds to ease out. The waves had built-up considerably and the swell was rounding the little island badly, making anchoring very dangerous. I was in the back of a reef barrier and as close to the beach as I could be, but the 6-foot draft [of the boat] could not shelter me any more. The waves were rolling to shore, making this place a decent surfer spot!
On the evening of November 14th, after changing my head furling sail to a heavier one, I decided to lift anchor and head for Providenciales in 30-35 knot winds and 12-15 foot waves. As the anchor windlass
got stuck when the the anchor was off the ocean bottom, a thunder squall came along. I was being pushed toward the reef dangerously, so I raced back to use the engine. I tumbled into the cockpit. Then, by the time I recovered my balance, I first felt the impact. As the next set of waves lifted me onto the reef, the boat was now laying flat on the reef -- with the head sail unfurled and the and the anchor down 10 feet from the stored position. I was holding on the best I could, trying not to fall off the boat. Finally, after a time that seemed like forever, the boat was finally blown off the reef and was being pushed from the sheltered anchorage. The engine had stalled and wouldn't restart. I went down below where I noticed water coming in fast. In a panicked moment, I lifted every cushion and still couldn't figure out where all the water was coming from!
By now it was pitch dark outside, and I could only see the shape of the island on the horizon getting further and further away. The water level had gotten to the batteries. The lights went out. I then prepared for abandoning the vessel. I lauched the dinghy and got my emergency bag and jug of water. Now in open water, waves were starting to break over the cockpit. I jumped into the dinghy, still holding on to a 20-foot line attached to Scirocco. The decision to let go was faily easy when it became obvious the boat was going down and that 2-horsepower engine would have a hard time bringing me back to shore.
After a long fight with my 7-foot dinghy against 12-foot breaking waves, I made it back to the island where a crash-landed onto the reef with one big wave. In my wetsuit (under my weather jacket) I pulled up the dinghy, collected my stuff and settled under a palm tree. The next day soon came, and I walked around the Island without seeing a single person to ask for help. There was an empty fishing village on the island, which would be good shelter for an eventual extended stay on the island. Back at my camp, I tried to radio a ship I spotted on the horizon. However, my little hand-held was of no use. Around noon that day I decided to activate my McMurdo Precesion Category II EPRIB (now the McMurdo SmartFind Cat. II). Then, about 2 hours later, I could hear the comforting sound of a US Coast Guard chopper arriving. They circled a few times around my position where I had activated flares. They soon landed and lifted me out of my misery."
Owner and Captain of the Scirocco