Not Every Sailor Makes it...

'Wanting this....' .

Not every sailor who sets off with high hopes of a magnificent experience is cognisant of the way that the ocean remains always in control. A week of high seas, mechanical problems and fatigue proved too much for a 61-year-old man attempting to sail solo from Santa Catalina Island to Hawaii last month.

Coast Guard officers responded to a July 16 VHF radio distress signal that the sole occupant of the 34-foot sailboat Dreamweaver had been battling tough conditions 140 miles west of San Diego for 48 hours straight.

Skipper James O'Connor told authorities he left Catalina Island bound for Maui, Hawaii and quickly encountered high winds and rough seas. With exhaustion setting in and

...getting this - .. .

problems mounting, the sailor became increasingly concerned that he'd fall overboard.

The Coast Guard dispatched an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and C-130 aircraft to the scene.

"His difficult decision to leave his vessel and call us before it turned into a major search-and-rescue case probably saved his own life," said helicopter pilot Lt. jg Amanda Sardone.

O'Connor was lifted aboard the helicopter and returned to terra firma, according to the Coast Guard. Dreamweaver was left to drift at the mercy of winds and currents.

The next day, Capt. Bubba Severence of the assistance towing firm Sea Tow got a call from the man's son.

"He wanted us to go get his dad's boat," Severence said. "He told me Dreamweaver had a GPS locator on it, and that we should be able to find it pretty easily.

"But I explained that his dad's boat was so far offshore we'd need to hire a larger vessel with more range than anything in our fleet," Severence said. "One of our boats could make it out there to drop off a crew to return Dreamweaver, but with a round-trip of 300, maybe 400 miles, it probably would not make it back."

Sea Tow was not hired to retrieve the vessel. The fate of Dreamweaver is unknown

by The Log/Sail-World Cruising