On October 30, BWSC member Fred Kern and his crew of three were taken aboard the USS Cole in high wind and seas, leaving Fred and Anne’s Catana 42S catamaran Sea Hawk II adrift.
Sea Hawk left Little River, SC on October 28, bound for the Kern’s winter home in Hutchinson Island, FL. The departure forecast was for the wind to clock from light NE to W at 12-15 knots. Instead the W wind increased to over 25, gusting over 30, and Sea Hawk was making 6-8 knots under deeply reefed genoa alone, 40nm offshore, in uncomfortable but not unsafe conditions. At approximately 6pm on the 30th, a USCG helicopter flew overhead and made VHF radio contact. The crew were advised that the weather was forecast to “get much worse overnight” but would not say by how much. Sea Hawk did not have Starlink or sat comms and so could not receive an updated forecast to make an independent decision, so the crew decided to heed the Coast Guard’s advice and abandon ship. The USS Cole was diverted and a RIB deployed from the ship to remove the crew. It took four to five attempts to get each crew member aboard the RIB because of the wind and sea state. After a soaking ride back to the Cole, all crew were safely transferred aboard.
Sea Hawk continued to send AIS pings. The insurance company paid for an attempted salvage, but the vessel was not located and pings stopped being received on November 15. All electrical loads other than AIS were switched off, so Sea Hawk’s solar panels were able to keep the batteries sufficiently charged. Fred and Anne wondered whether the boat was struck by a vessel and sunk, but a ping was received on December 26, showing Sea Hawk II halfway to Bermuda!
Fred had made nine previous uneventful roundtrips between Florida and New England. After this ill-fated tenth return, Fred related important lessons learned:
Always have a means of offshore communication to receive updated forecasts.
The iPhones aboard were supposed to be able to use satellite communication for texting when out of cellphone tower range. Fred was able to send some texts when departing SC, but this capability did not work later, when they needed to reach people on shore.
Fred and Anne are considering whether to buy one boat to continue their annual migration, or buy two smaller boats, docking one in Florida and one in New England. I’m sure all BWSC members are relieved that Fred and crew are safe, and that which boat(s) to buy is a good problem to have!
Auguste Fortin
Vice Commodore
