A Daring Rescue At Sea For Two BVI Residents
John and Maxine White, an Australian and an American husband and wife who have been living in the BVI since 1992, are truly thanking God today for sparing their lives to see this day, following a traumatic experience in the middle of the ocean.
The two, along with a crew of three, were miraculously rescued at sea after their boat struck an object in the water and sank. The couple worked with The Moorings for three years and later owned their own boat - a 52 ft. catamaran called "Tamarin of Tortola". Like most charter boat operators, they usually run away for the hurricane season. The Whites have been going to the San Blas Islands on the Caribbean side of Panama for the last three years.
In an exclusive interview with The Island Sun newspaper, John recounted being on their way back to the British Virgin Islands, where they hoped to participate in the boat show on November 7th. They pulled into Cartagena Colombia for refuelling and left Monday October 9th at noon with three backpackers, two American boys - Kevin Prior and Andrew Bruck and a 20-year old Israeli girl - Noa Meyer. "Four days later, about 6pm on October 12th, we struck an object in the water, at about 13 degrees North 51 minutes and 73 degrees West 51 minutes and it took ten minutes for the boat to sink," he related. Being a wooden boat, she only sank to the roof level. "So we started sending out may day calls using the single side band radio and the VHF radio. It was picked up in New Orleans and many vessels in the Caribbean heard our distress."
Thankfully the satellite phone on the boat was still operable and they were picked up by Julia Arias of Panama Yacht Services, who gave their coordinates to the Coast Guard. She contacted the US Air Force, the US Navy and yacht brokers in Florida.
"While all this was going on, we made our way to the 10-man life raft behind the Tamarin, with all our flares and portable radio," John recalled. After what must have been the longest 4 1/2 hours, they saw a ship in the distance and sent off red flares, switched on their portable radio and made contact with Captain Nikolas Silvitis of the Iolcos Star, who initiated the rescue mission. The one difficulty was however, that he was bound for Holland.
By this time, Frances David of Caribbean Connections here in the BVI, heard about the Whites' plight and with the help of other friends, including Ed and Barbara Pascoe of Sage Mountain, organized a helicopter from Brad Hanger's Island Helicopters, to pick up the five crew as they were passing Puerto Rico in the Mona Passage. They arrived in the BVI on Saturday October 14th and were greeted at the airport by Frances David and Chief Immigration Officer Mr. Vincent O'Neal, as they had no travel documents. Mr. O'Neal graciously processed the White's, who are now in the process of renewing their passports and gave the other three crew members time in order to get their passports so they could leave the territory. On the Sunday after they arrived, they worshipped at the St. William's Roman Catholic Church and the congregation later took them out and bought them clothes. The two American boys and the Israeli girl were being accommodated by Mr. and Mrs. Trenton Field. The White's stayed at Village Cay for a few days, but were expected to be taken in by friends by last weekend.
John pointed out that Caribbean Weather Man David Jones was very helpful. One may remember John and Maxine from 1992. They got married in Cane Garden Bay on Valentine's Day back then. He had sailed from Australia to San Francisco where he met her and they both sailed to the BVI. They were also the owners of two prominently displaced boats off the Admin Building and the ice cream parlour opposite Pusser's in Road Town following Hurricane Marilyn in October 1995. The boat that just recently sank was a rebuild of the Tamarin, which was the one that washed ashore off the Admin Building. A representative from the insurance company, Admiral, out of London, was in the territory last week to interview the shipwrecked crew.
As for whether John and Maxine will recoup, purchase another boat and get back into doing what they have been doing for the past 11 years, he said: "We're thinking we might need a break now and move ashore!"
He can be contacted via e-mail at: YTMAX@compuserve.com