WEBVTT 1 00:00:06.519 --> 00:00:10.800 Hello, survivalists. This is the Crux True Survival Story podcast. 2 00:00:11.320 --> 00:00:13.400 I'm Casey McIntosh. 3 00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:14.519 And I'm Julie Henningson. 4 00:00:14.119 --> 00:00:17.719 And we are medical professionals with a passion for wilderness survival. 5 00:00:17.879 --> 00:00:20.920 Join us as we explore real life survival stories and 6 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:25.359 the critical moments that determine their outcomes. Buckle up, adventure awaits, 7 00:00:25.559 --> 00:00:31.440 let's dive into this week's story. It's six o'clock in 8 00:00:31.480 --> 00:00:34.960 the morning on June fourth, nineteen eighty nine, and you're 9 00:00:35.039 --> 00:00:38.320 lying in a bunk in the dark, roughly one hundred 10 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:42.359 and forty miles off New Zealand's East Cape. Your name 11 00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:46.399 is Jim Nalpka. You're thirty eight years old, and you're 12 00:00:46.399 --> 00:00:50.039 from Minneapolis, and until three days ago, you had never 13 00:00:50.159 --> 00:00:52.960 sailed a boat in your life. You cook for a 14 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:55.600 living and when your friend Rick asked you if you 15 00:00:55.640 --> 00:00:58.159 wanted to sail to Tonga, you thought about it for 16 00:00:58.200 --> 00:01:02.159 about five seconds and said yes. For two days, a 17 00:01:02.200 --> 00:01:05.959 winter storm has thrown this forty foot trimaran around like 18 00:01:06.040 --> 00:01:10.120 a toy. But this morning, finally the wind has dropped, 19 00:01:10.519 --> 00:01:13.879 the waves have stopped breaking through the porthole, you see 20 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:18.159 the first gray light. The skipper's already up, breakfast, sails 21 00:01:18.560 --> 00:01:22.719 and head north to warm water. Then you hear it, 22 00:01:23.239 --> 00:01:28.239 a sound different from every wave that came before. It, bigger, louder. 23 00:01:28.879 --> 00:01:31.920 When you were a boy in Minnesota, a tornado took 24 00:01:31.959 --> 00:01:35.560 your whole block, and what you remember is how quiet 25 00:01:35.599 --> 00:01:39.200 it went right before it hit. This is that quiet. 26 00:01:39.760 --> 00:01:44.799 Then the wave arrives and the world rotates. The boat 27 00:01:44.840 --> 00:01:49.640 goes up and over without hesitating. Ceiling becomes floor. Black 28 00:01:49.719 --> 00:01:55.719 water pours in and climbs your body in the dark, knees, waste, chest, 29 00:01:55.879 --> 00:01:58.280 and you have no way of knowing when it will stop, 30 00:01:58.799 --> 00:02:02.079 but it does stop at chest height. Your head is 31 00:02:02.120 --> 00:02:05.959 in an air pocket. Four men in an upside down 32 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:09.800 boat in a patch of winter ocean. Your skipper will 33 00:02:09.840 --> 00:02:14.479 one day call a marine desert. Nobody is coming, and 34 00:02:14.520 --> 00:02:17.159 you're going to live inside this hole for the next 35 00:02:17.360 --> 00:02:19.479 one hundred and nineteen days. 36 00:02:20.199 --> 00:02:23.039 Hello survivalists, and welcome back to the Crux to your 37 00:02:23.039 --> 00:02:27.439 survival stories. I'm Casey McIntosh, joined as always by Julie Huntingson. 38 00:02:27.960 --> 00:02:31.879 Today's story is the Rose Noel. Four men, most of 39 00:02:31.919 --> 00:02:35.280 them strangers to each other, who spent nearly four months 40 00:02:35.360 --> 00:02:39.639 trapped in and on a capsized trimaran in the winter 41 00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:43.120 South Pacific. It is one of the longest survival stories 42 00:02:43.199 --> 00:02:46.319 ever recorded on a capsized vessel. And I want to 43 00:02:46.360 --> 00:02:48.759 plant one thing before we start, because it's a pretty 44 00:02:48.840 --> 00:02:52.400 unique part of the story. Surviving the ocean turned out 45 00:02:52.439 --> 00:02:53.800 not to be the hardest part. 46 00:02:54.280 --> 00:02:57.560 Hold on to that thought. We will get there quite interesting. 47 00:02:58.120 --> 00:03:01.759 But first, a big thanks to listener Amy Moffatt Mercer 48 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:05.520 and her man friend who suggested this harrowing tale. A 49 00:03:05.560 --> 00:03:08.080 grateful shout out to both of you. So to get 50 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:11.759 us started, let's introduce you to four men and one boat. 51 00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:15.319 We'll start with John Glennie. He's forty eight years old, 52 00:03:15.680 --> 00:03:17.719 a New Zealander who spent most of his life on 53 00:03:17.759 --> 00:03:20.960 the water. Back in the nineteen sixties, he sailed the 54 00:03:20.960 --> 00:03:24.439 Pacific in a trimaran with his brother. The Rose Noel 55 00:03:24.800 --> 00:03:28.800 was twelve point six meters about forty feet three holes, 56 00:03:29.319 --> 00:03:32.120 six and a half tons, and Glennie had built her 57 00:03:32.199 --> 00:03:35.199 with his own hands. She wasn't just his boat, she 58 00:03:35.360 --> 00:03:38.719 was his address. Everything he owned in the world was 59 00:03:38.759 --> 00:03:41.000 a boarder, right down to his bicycle which he kept 60 00:03:41.039 --> 00:03:44.960 on board. And yes, remember the bicycle. He comes back 61 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:46.759 at the very end of our story today in a 62 00:03:46.759 --> 00:03:49.199 way that you might not see coming. The plan was 63 00:03:49.240 --> 00:03:52.759 a winter escape from a New Zealand winter north from 64 00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:55.800 Picton at the top of the South Island, up to 65 00:03:55.800 --> 00:03:59.639 Tonga Head towards warm Water, and to get there he 66 00:03:59.680 --> 00:04:02.599 needed a crew, which he found by putting an ad 67 00:04:02.680 --> 00:04:06.080 up at the local Backpecker's hostel. That ad is how 68 00:04:06.199 --> 00:04:10.280 Rick Hellraigel came aboard, thirty one years old, a Kiwi 69 00:04:10.319 --> 00:04:13.879 from the outward bound school at Onakiwa and the most 70 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:17.639 naturally able seaman of the three crew. And when you 71 00:04:17.720 --> 00:04:20.680 read Rick's own account of the first night out of Picton, 72 00:04:20.959 --> 00:04:22.720 you can get a feel for the trip he thought 73 00:04:22.759 --> 00:04:25.399 he was getting. They came out into the cook straight 74 00:04:25.480 --> 00:04:29.480 in a strong wind, reefed down and still hit sixteen knots, 75 00:04:29.759 --> 00:04:33.240 the fastest that boat ever went. Rick and John traded 76 00:04:33.279 --> 00:04:35.879 the helm in the cockpit. Rick wrote that it's an 77 00:04:35.959 --> 00:04:39.720 amazing feeling hanging onto the wheel of a sailboat doing 78 00:04:39.879 --> 00:04:44.639 sixteen knots. That's the last unambiguously good moment of this 79 00:04:44.920 --> 00:04:48.759 entire episode, a man laughing at the wheel in the dark, 80 00:04:48.959 --> 00:04:53.399 going fast. Rick brought his friend Jim Jim Nalpka was 81 00:04:53.439 --> 00:04:57.240 thirty eight from Minnesota, a state with sixteen thousand lakes, 82 00:04:57.439 --> 00:05:00.240 and he'd never sailed on any of them. He was 83 00:05:00.279 --> 00:05:04.040 the catering director at Outward Bound, which meant Jim's job 84 00:05:04.160 --> 00:05:07.160 was to feed the people going out on adventures. He'd 85 00:05:07.160 --> 00:05:09.600 wave them off, then go back to planning a menu 86 00:05:09.759 --> 00:05:13.160 or cutting up potatoes. So when Rick turned up one 87 00:05:13.199 --> 00:05:17.000 morning and said I'm going sailing to Tonga, Jim later 88 00:05:17.040 --> 00:05:19.560 said he thought about it for four or five seconds 89 00:05:19.639 --> 00:05:23.079 and then said, yes, I'll go. I'd love to go Tonga. 90 00:05:23.120 --> 00:05:26.839 In his head was warm weather, blue water, and being 91 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:29.959 for once the guy on the adventure instead of the 92 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:33.360 guy waving. And when Jim got to Picton and saw 93 00:05:33.399 --> 00:05:36.600 the boat, he compared her to a Cadillac, a TV 94 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:43.120 satellite navigation radar, wind generator VHF and Ham radio, two 95 00:05:43.160 --> 00:05:47.439 stereos and a galley with stainless steel walks and a barbecue. 96 00:05:47.800 --> 00:05:52.399 Everything was meticulous, classy. Jim said that he thought, I'm 97 00:05:52.439 --> 00:05:54.519 going to be proud to be on this boat. The 98 00:05:54.639 --> 00:05:58.920 fourth man was Phil Hoffman forty one, a builder from Picton, 99 00:05:59.040 --> 00:06:02.279 married to Karen and father of four. His own boat 100 00:06:02.360 --> 00:06:05.120 was tied up right behind the Rose Noel in Picton, 101 00:06:05.360 --> 00:06:08.360 which is how he and Glenny got to talking. Karen 102 00:06:08.399 --> 00:06:11.199 said Phil was always looking for adventure and this would 103 00:06:11.199 --> 00:06:13.360 be the first time in his life that he'd ever 104 00:06:13.439 --> 00:06:16.879 left New Zealand. Phil had a history that the others didn't. 105 00:06:17.160 --> 00:06:20.319 Three years earlier, he'd had a triple bypass surgery. 106 00:06:20.839 --> 00:06:22.360 He was pretty young at that point. 107 00:06:22.600 --> 00:06:24.399 Yeah, he would have been in his late thirties, which 108 00:06:24.439 --> 00:06:25.439 is quite young. 109 00:06:25.720 --> 00:06:31.279 Right, So this cardiovascular history is worth one honest comment. 110 00:06:31.519 --> 00:06:35.360 A successful bypass three years out doesn't make you fragile. 111 00:06:35.399 --> 00:06:38.480 Plenty of these patients are hiking and working, sailing and 112 00:06:38.759 --> 00:06:42.160 live full lives, and Phil clearly was. What it does 113 00:06:42.240 --> 00:06:44.800 mean is that he was one of the crew members 114 00:06:44.879 --> 00:06:48.319 with a known cardiac history heading into an environment that 115 00:06:48.360 --> 00:06:53.920 would eventually deliver cold, dehydration and sustained fear, none of 116 00:06:53.920 --> 00:06:56.439 which is a problem on a two week sial to toga, 117 00:06:57.000 --> 00:06:59.160 all of which just becomes a problem if the sale 118 00:06:59.199 --> 00:07:01.319 stops being just two weeks. 119 00:07:01.920 --> 00:07:05.600 So our team here is a self taught sailor sleeping 120 00:07:05.600 --> 00:07:10.120 aboard everything he owned, a young outdoorsman who loved going fast, 121 00:07:10.560 --> 00:07:14.040 a cook who'd never sailed, finally getting his turn and 122 00:07:14.079 --> 00:07:17.399 a builder taking his first trip abroad on a boat 123 00:07:17.439 --> 00:07:19.519 he met because it was parked in front of his own. 124 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:23.360 So on June first, nineteen eighty nine, they slipped out 125 00:07:23.399 --> 00:07:27.680 of Picton bound for Tonga. The weather turned early on 126 00:07:27.839 --> 00:07:32.639 the second night, wind rain and darkness so total that 127 00:07:32.800 --> 00:07:36.079 Rick said he couldn't steer by the compass. He steered 128 00:07:36.120 --> 00:07:37.879 by the feel of the wind on the side of 129 00:07:37.879 --> 00:07:40.879 his face. They streamed a drogue off the stern, a 130 00:07:40.959 --> 00:07:44.120 drag device on a long line, essentially a break to 131 00:07:44.199 --> 00:07:46.720 try and slow down. By the third day, it was 132 00:07:46.800 --> 00:07:49.959 bad enough that they stopped sailing altogether and lay a hole, 133 00:07:50.279 --> 00:07:54.120 sails down, wheel lashed, letting the boat fend for herself 134 00:07:54.720 --> 00:07:58.000 side on to the seas. Rick described the ocean as 135 00:07:58.040 --> 00:08:02.120 a heaving green mass, the tops of the swells shearing 136 00:08:02.120 --> 00:08:05.560 off white. In the wind most waves, the boat rowed 137 00:08:05.720 --> 00:08:08.079 the odd one broke against her with a crack, and 138 00:08:08.160 --> 00:08:12.279 shoved her sideways, shuddering across the water. The next morning 139 00:08:12.519 --> 00:08:16.480 they set a sea anchor, essentially an underwater parachute meant 140 00:08:16.560 --> 00:08:19.639 to hold the bow into the waves. Rick said it 141 00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:22.199 took an hour and a half of struggle to set, 142 00:08:22.600 --> 00:08:25.360 and for four hours. It worked and the ride went 143 00:08:25.399 --> 00:08:29.639 almost gentle. Then it partly failed. The boat swung away 144 00:08:30.120 --> 00:08:32.840 and the boat ended up side on to the waves again. 145 00:08:33.320 --> 00:08:36.919 But by Rick's account, the anchor was still dragging just 146 00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:39.840 enough to hold her in place. And that's the part 147 00:08:39.879 --> 00:08:43.200 that mattered. Because a boat like this isn't supposed to 148 00:08:43.320 --> 00:08:46.679 stand and take a wave. It's supposed to get shoved. 149 00:08:47.240 --> 00:08:50.480 When a wall of water hits you broadside. You want 150 00:08:50.519 --> 00:08:53.840 the whole boat to slide away sideways with the punch, 151 00:08:54.159 --> 00:08:57.320 skid across the surface, spill the energy. What you never 152 00:08:57.360 --> 00:09:00.879 want is anything anchoring you in place while a wave 153 00:09:00.960 --> 00:09:05.159 shoves your side. Think about a car sliding sideways on ice. 154 00:09:05.720 --> 00:09:09.159 Sliding you're fine, but it's the instant the tire catches 155 00:09:09.200 --> 00:09:12.799 on dry pavement that the car would stop sliding and 156 00:09:12.879 --> 00:09:13.600 start rolling. 157 00:09:14.200 --> 00:09:16.840 And Rick knew that he wanted the sea anchor gone, 158 00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:19.480 but it had taken an hour and a half of 159 00:09:19.559 --> 00:09:22.399 fighting to get that thing set, and Glenny was worried 160 00:09:22.399 --> 00:09:25.759 about someone losing fingers hauling it back in. He argued 161 00:09:25.759 --> 00:09:29.519 for leaving it, and Rick agreed in his own telling afterward, 162 00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:31.960 With hindsight, they should have gotten rid of it. 163 00:09:32.679 --> 00:09:37.000 Below deck Jim described being catapulted out of the double 164 00:09:37.039 --> 00:09:42.960 bunk by waves and slammed onto the floor, and Phil, claustrophobic, 165 00:09:43.559 --> 00:09:46.960 wedged into a narrow quarter berth he compared to a coffin. 166 00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:50.480 Three days into the first sea passage of his life, 167 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:53.759 Phil was, in Jim's account, the one who was panicking. 168 00:09:54.399 --> 00:09:56.919 He kept saying they were going to flip. He said 169 00:09:56.960 --> 00:09:59.480 he couldn't take it, he had to get out. At 170 00:09:59.480 --> 00:10:04.840 one point, Jim said, Phil wanted Glennie to call a helicopter. Glennie, 171 00:10:04.919 --> 00:10:09.440 who didn't consider this an emergency, didn't call. Then came 172 00:10:09.639 --> 00:10:12.639 the morning of June fourth, and this is the detail 173 00:10:12.759 --> 00:10:16.320 that kind of hurts. The storm was easing, the wind 174 00:10:16.360 --> 00:10:20.000 had dropped. The white caps at this point were gone. 175 00:10:20.120 --> 00:10:22.320 Rick said he and John looked at each other at 176 00:10:22.320 --> 00:10:25.519 the first light and agreed, today's day we can go sailing. 177 00:10:26.279 --> 00:10:30.279 All that stood between them and Tonga was breakfast. And 178 00:10:30.320 --> 00:10:34.840 then the wave announced itself with a sound. Rick said 179 00:10:34.840 --> 00:10:38.720 he could still hear it, bigger and louder than everything 180 00:10:38.759 --> 00:10:43.360 before one boom. Glennie had described it as a sixty 181 00:10:43.519 --> 00:10:47.240 foot vertical wall of water. That's his estimate, not a measurement. 182 00:10:47.759 --> 00:10:50.600 And Rick never saw it at all. In every account 183 00:10:50.639 --> 00:10:52.919 he gave, he couldn't tell you what it looked like, 184 00:10:53.639 --> 00:10:56.759 only what it sounded like. Rick's own belief was that 185 00:10:56.799 --> 00:10:59.720 the sea anchor was the difference, that it stopped the 186 00:10:59.759 --> 00:11:03.279 boat from skidding away. So instead of sliding down the 187 00:11:03.279 --> 00:11:07.000 face of this wave, the rose Noelle tripped and went 188 00:11:07.320 --> 00:11:11.279 up and over in one moment, no hesitation. 189 00:11:11.720 --> 00:11:14.600 And there's one piece of design physics buried in that 190 00:11:14.759 --> 00:11:18.799 moment that decides the rest of the story. Many offshore 191 00:11:18.919 --> 00:11:23.080 monoholes carry a heavy ballast keel that helps them recover 192 00:11:23.159 --> 00:11:26.600 from a knockdown lead in the bottom, levering the boat 193 00:11:26.600 --> 00:11:31.360 back upright. A trimran gets a stability from beam instead 194 00:11:32.039 --> 00:11:36.159 from that wide three hold footprint, which makes her tremendously 195 00:11:36.200 --> 00:11:40.600 stable right side up and stable upside down too once 196 00:11:40.759 --> 00:11:45.000 she's fully inverted. Writing her might be flatly impossible for 197 00:11:45.080 --> 00:11:50.639 the crew, but those same light, buoyant, unballasted holes are 198 00:11:50.720 --> 00:11:54.600 what let her keep floating. Their prison was also their 199 00:11:54.639 --> 00:11:55.240 life raft. 200 00:11:56.120 --> 00:11:59.279 Inside the cabin in the dark, the water rose to 201 00:11:59.320 --> 00:12:03.679 their chest and then stopped. Phil was trapped in that 202 00:12:03.840 --> 00:12:07.759 coffin sized berth, screaming and in Jim's account, Phil panicked 203 00:12:07.799 --> 00:12:11.960 so hard he kicked out the companionway doors, which opened 204 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:15.480 the hole to the sea, and the surge began sucking 205 00:12:15.519 --> 00:12:19.200 their gear out into the Pacific. Jim salvaged nothing of 206 00:12:19.240 --> 00:12:22.399 his own but the clothes he was wearing, and by 207 00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:26.639 Jim's telling, that was a grudge that Glennie carried against Phil. 208 00:12:26.679 --> 00:12:30.039 Those kicked out doors for the next four months. This 209 00:12:30.120 --> 00:12:32.200 tells you a little bit about the kind of four 210 00:12:32.240 --> 00:12:35.360 months that are coming for these men. In the first hours, 211 00:12:35.399 --> 00:12:38.639 though the men worked, Jim said, Glennie was the one 212 00:12:38.639 --> 00:12:43.159 who knew what to do. Grab everything, throw it, aft apples, 213 00:12:43.399 --> 00:12:48.039 sleeping bags, anything floating. Then for hours they filled the 214 00:12:48.080 --> 00:12:52.519 flooded floor of the aft cabin with drawers, cupboard doors, 215 00:12:52.639 --> 00:12:57.159 life jackets, an old mattress, building this wreckage up like 216 00:12:57.399 --> 00:13:00.440 landfill until they had kind of a sleeping plat form 217 00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:04.879 that fell above the waterline. That platform was Glennie's old 218 00:13:04.960 --> 00:13:08.559 double berth. Phil later described it to reporters as a 219 00:13:08.600 --> 00:13:12.320 cave like living space, and he gave the measurement that 220 00:13:12.600 --> 00:13:16.960 sticks with you. They slept four abreast on a mattress 221 00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:20.720 fifty four inches wide, about the same size as a 222 00:13:20.840 --> 00:13:24.679 US full size bed with less than an arm's width 223 00:13:24.720 --> 00:13:28.080 of headroom above them. They would lay down in the dark, 224 00:13:28.120 --> 00:13:31.039 all facing the same way, pressed together like spoons. 225 00:13:31.840 --> 00:13:34.399 Jim said that on the very first night they were 226 00:13:34.440 --> 00:13:37.320 already arguing about who was taking up too much space. 227 00:13:37.879 --> 00:13:39.480 I can just picture it now. 228 00:13:40.080 --> 00:13:43.559 Yeah, I can't even imagine four grown men in a 229 00:13:43.600 --> 00:13:47.000 full sized bed spooning each other. And this is one 230 00:13:47.080 --> 00:13:50.120 night of many to come, although they don't know this yet. 231 00:13:50.559 --> 00:13:52.879 Also, if you're on the edges of the bed and 232 00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:54.759 you roll, you end up in the water. 233 00:13:55.159 --> 00:13:58.200 In the water, Yeah, this stakes or high. At this point, 234 00:13:58.200 --> 00:14:01.960 they weren't desperate, Yeah, because they had one object that 235 00:14:02.080 --> 00:14:05.600 was supposed to make this whole thing survivable. The night 236 00:14:05.639 --> 00:14:09.399 before they capsize, when Rick was worried about what might happen, 237 00:14:09.759 --> 00:14:14.440 he pulled the EPERB the emergency position indicating radio beacon 238 00:14:14.679 --> 00:14:16.600 out of its cupboard and he sealed it in a 239 00:14:16.639 --> 00:14:20.200 waterproof bag. So when the boat went over, that bag 240 00:14:20.360 --> 00:14:22.960 was the first thing he grabbed. Rick's thought, in his 241 00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:27.399 own words afterward, was essentially, what a bummer. But we've 242 00:14:27.399 --> 00:14:29.879 got the beacon. That's the only thing we really need. 243 00:14:30.519 --> 00:14:33.480 And the beacon, of course is a radio transmitter. A 244 00:14:33.559 --> 00:14:37.120 radio transmitter is pretty useless if its signal can't get out. 245 00:14:37.759 --> 00:14:42.120 Their whole world was now inside an overturned hull, surrounded 246 00:14:42.159 --> 00:14:45.879 by water below and fiberglass above, and Rick said they 247 00:14:45.919 --> 00:14:48.399 weren't even sure that the thing would transmit through the 248 00:14:48.440 --> 00:14:52.480 boat's structure, so they made an opening for the beacon. 249 00:14:52.960 --> 00:14:55.600 Phil and Glennie went forward and cut a hole in 250 00:14:55.639 --> 00:14:59.200 the hole just above the new waterline about a meter square. 251 00:14:59.600 --> 00:15:03.440 Hammer and chisel through fiberglass and foam, then a key 252 00:15:03.480 --> 00:15:07.519 hole saw. They clamped the beacon inside the opening, with 253 00:15:07.600 --> 00:15:10.480 the aerial pointing out at the sky, and flicked the switch. 254 00:15:11.159 --> 00:15:15.120 The little light started blinking right on que transmitting. They 255 00:15:15.159 --> 00:15:18.000 cut a second hole aft so that they could climb 256 00:15:18.039 --> 00:15:20.440 out and sit on the upturn hole to keep watch. 257 00:15:21.120 --> 00:15:23.600 A few days later they found a V sheet, the 258 00:15:23.600 --> 00:15:27.919 bright orange distress flag with the black V, and lashed 259 00:15:27.919 --> 00:15:31.159 it across the hole, face up, and then they said 260 00:15:31.200 --> 00:15:35.519 the word that runs through this entire episode, tomorrow. Jim's 261 00:15:35.559 --> 00:15:39.159 description of that period is four men reinforcing each other. 262 00:15:39.519 --> 00:15:42.080 As soon as a plane sees the V sheet were home. 263 00:15:42.440 --> 00:15:46.919 Someone will surely see us tomorrow. But the wind shredded 264 00:15:46.919 --> 00:15:50.360 the V sheet to ribbons over the following days, and 265 00:15:50.799 --> 00:15:55.240 after roughly nine days, the beacon's battery went flat and 266 00:15:55.279 --> 00:15:59.360 the light went out. In Jim's words, their biggest chance 267 00:15:59.360 --> 00:16:02.320 of being found was gone. And what none of them 268 00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:05.000 knew is that it had never been a chance at all. 269 00:16:05.360 --> 00:16:08.159 The signal was never received, not once. 270 00:16:12.399 --> 00:16:14.039 I was just thinking about how the bottom of the 271 00:16:14.039 --> 00:16:17.639 boat just blends into the ocean. It should be bright orange. 272 00:16:17.679 --> 00:16:21.519 All bottoms of boats should be bright colors, like sutures. 273 00:16:21.600 --> 00:16:24.159 I feel like we've come to that conclusion before on 274 00:16:24.200 --> 00:16:27.120 this podcast, but I agree, you know, why not? You 275 00:16:27.159 --> 00:16:28.840 got to paint at some color. 276 00:16:29.000 --> 00:16:33.039 Right, might as well be fluorescent orange or yellow. 277 00:16:32.960 --> 00:16:35.200 Yea, like sutures that you're going to use on somebody's 278 00:16:35.360 --> 00:16:36.759 scalp of brown hair. 279 00:16:37.080 --> 00:16:40.559 Right. Well, this is where the story stops being bad 280 00:16:40.639 --> 00:16:44.279 luck and starts being a system's failure. Their older generation 281 00:16:44.360 --> 00:16:48.919 beacon simply did not provide the global near instant satellite 282 00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:52.039 alert that a modern four h six megahertz EPRB CAN 283 00:16:52.559 --> 00:16:55.240 and New Zealand did not yet have the satellite receiver 284 00:16:55.320 --> 00:16:58.480 station that was later established at Lower Hut so that 285 00:16:58.600 --> 00:17:02.320 light could blink faithfully for nine days into what was, 286 00:17:02.440 --> 00:17:06.440 for rescue purposes, an empty sky. There was a search. 287 00:17:06.880 --> 00:17:10.000 An air force o'riyan spent two days on it, but 288 00:17:10.079 --> 00:17:14.079 it was concentrated up around the Kermadex in Tongo, hundreds 289 00:17:14.079 --> 00:17:17.720 of miles from where they actually were chasing garbled radio 290 00:17:17.720 --> 00:17:20.720 messages the authorities thought might have come up from the yacht, 291 00:17:21.240 --> 00:17:24.480 and that with no beacon and no position, Search and 292 00:17:24.559 --> 00:17:28.559 Rescue concluded something catastrophic had happened, and on its August 293 00:17:28.720 --> 00:17:32.240 to September nineteen eighty nine bulletin the New Zealand Water 294 00:17:32.279 --> 00:17:35.920 Safety Council listed all four men as drowned while they 295 00:17:35.920 --> 00:17:40.039 were alive rationing liquid a few hundred miles from. 296 00:17:39.920 --> 00:17:44.319 Home, so essentially, their families were told to start grieving. 297 00:17:45.039 --> 00:17:49.319 Phil's wife, Karen, has described people gently pressuring her to 298 00:17:49.519 --> 00:17:52.359 accept that her husband wasn't coming home, and remember they 299 00:17:52.359 --> 00:17:55.440 had four kids, but she refused. She said that she 300 00:17:55.559 --> 00:17:58.720 made a private pact with God. If Phil came back, 301 00:17:59.039 --> 00:18:01.319 she would take him however he came, even if the 302 00:18:01.359 --> 00:18:03.119 sea returned a different man. 303 00:18:03.559 --> 00:18:06.319 We always do those private packs with the God when 304 00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:07.319 things like this happen. 305 00:18:07.799 --> 00:18:13.799 Right, all kinds of rationalizing and bargaining definitely bargaining future 306 00:18:13.799 --> 00:18:14.319 of grieving. 307 00:18:14.759 --> 00:18:16.839 I just can't imagine what it would be like to 308 00:18:16.920 --> 00:18:19.000 just simply accept it without any proof. 309 00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:22.200 It would be impossible, I think, at least at first. 310 00:18:23.039 --> 00:18:26.400 So for these men, water was their first priority. The 311 00:18:26.519 --> 00:18:29.799 rose Noel carried about one hundred and forty liters of 312 00:18:29.880 --> 00:18:33.480 fresh water in her tanks and upside down without the 313 00:18:33.559 --> 00:18:39.119 crew knowing, those tanks were quietly draining themselves. So what 314 00:18:39.319 --> 00:18:43.000 was left was salvaged soft drink and juice, and they 315 00:18:43.079 --> 00:18:46.400 rationed it hard. The figure that appears in later accounts 316 00:18:46.480 --> 00:18:50.319 is roughly four ounces per man per day. We haven't 317 00:18:50.359 --> 00:18:53.440 confirmed that number in a survivor's own account, but whatever 318 00:18:53.519 --> 00:18:55.960 the exact amount, it was a fraction of what a 319 00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:56.920 body needs. 320 00:18:57.440 --> 00:19:00.880 At anything close to four ounces a day. Were borrowing 321 00:19:00.960 --> 00:19:05.400 water from other body fluids, blood volume falls and concentrates. 322 00:19:05.720 --> 00:19:08.799 Thinking slows, and the kidneys shut down every loss they 323 00:19:08.839 --> 00:19:12.480 can afford to shut down. Without rain, this story was 324 00:19:12.599 --> 00:19:15.680 almost certainly over. So they built the thing that saved them, 325 00:19:15.880 --> 00:19:20.119 a rainwater catchment system rigged on the upturned hull. That system, 326 00:19:20.319 --> 00:19:23.079 more than any other single object on that boat, is 327 00:19:23.119 --> 00:19:27.799 why this is a survival story instead of an unsolved disappearance. 328 00:19:27.720 --> 00:19:31.240 And food came from three directions. They still had some 329 00:19:31.359 --> 00:19:36.200 stored provisions aboard, some cereal, apples, cans of food, but 330 00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:39.519 access was the problem because the galley was now underwater 331 00:19:39.839 --> 00:19:43.720 inside the flooded cabin, so Glennie would dive for it 332 00:19:43.960 --> 00:19:47.759 again and again down into the blackwater, feeling his way 333 00:19:47.799 --> 00:19:51.640 through lockers that he half remembered Jim's description of this 334 00:19:51.759 --> 00:19:55.279 is almost funny. Glennie would surface out of some compartment 335 00:19:55.400 --> 00:19:58.279 with a fine and say, look what I've found, or God, 336 00:19:58.319 --> 00:20:02.000 where has that been? And this was still happening two 337 00:20:02.039 --> 00:20:05.680 months into this adventure. The man kept discovering his own boat. 338 00:20:06.319 --> 00:20:11.000 The second source was kiwi fruit. Trays of unripe kiwifruit 339 00:20:11.160 --> 00:20:14.920 survived the capsize, and because the fruit was green, it 340 00:20:14.960 --> 00:20:17.079 didn't have to be eaten all at once. It ripened 341 00:20:17.119 --> 00:20:21.359 gradually over weeks, and they rationed it out as it ripened. 342 00:20:21.519 --> 00:20:24.920 And they probably didn't understand how beneficial this really was. 343 00:20:25.400 --> 00:20:29.799 This was an extraordinarily lucky find because kiwifruit is rich 344 00:20:29.799 --> 00:20:33.920 in vitamin C, comparable to or higher than oranges by weight, 345 00:20:34.200 --> 00:20:37.599 and vitamin C is the shripwreck vitamin we can't make 346 00:20:37.640 --> 00:20:41.799 it on our own without it. Collagen production fails, gums bleed, 347 00:20:42.240 --> 00:20:46.720 old wounds reopen, blood, vessels get fragile. That's scurvy, and 348 00:20:46.759 --> 00:20:50.119 it's a classic killer of long voyagers. A tray of 349 00:20:50.160 --> 00:20:53.519 green kiwifruit, ripened one piece at a time is about 350 00:20:53.559 --> 00:20:57.799 the most fortunate cargo you could be carrying. And the third. 351 00:20:57.559 --> 00:21:02.000 Food source, the maybe strangest one, is the boat itself 352 00:21:02.160 --> 00:21:07.720 came alive. Week by week, barnacles colonized the upturn holes, 353 00:21:07.799 --> 00:21:11.119 and the wreck slowly turned into a kind of floating 354 00:21:11.160 --> 00:21:15.920 reef Reefs attract tenants, and fish began sheltering around the 355 00:21:15.920 --> 00:21:19.160 hole in the same stretch of ocean that Glennie had 356 00:21:19.160 --> 00:21:22.000 written off as a marine desert with no fish in it. 357 00:21:22.519 --> 00:21:24.880 The crew learned to take them with a gaff and 358 00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:28.160 keep these barnacles in mind. They have a second important 359 00:21:28.240 --> 00:21:31.160 job in the story, and it's one of the strangest 360 00:21:31.279 --> 00:21:34.000 aspects of it. We'll get to it. So here's the 361 00:21:34.119 --> 00:21:38.319 ordeal inside the ordeal. The Pacific was arguably the second 362 00:21:38.400 --> 00:21:41.440 most dangerous environment that these men were living in, and 363 00:21:41.480 --> 00:21:44.680 the first was each other. Three of the four men 364 00:21:44.759 --> 00:21:48.440 were strangers before pict in They had no shared history, 365 00:21:48.920 --> 00:21:53.319 no chosen loyalty, no exit, just that fifty four inch 366 00:21:53.480 --> 00:21:57.880 mattress and a southern winter handing them twelve hour nights, 367 00:21:57.960 --> 00:22:02.119 sometimes sealed in the dark for days while storms hammered 368 00:22:02.119 --> 00:22:06.079 the hole. Nearly everything we know about that dynamic comes 369 00:22:06.119 --> 00:22:09.039 from these men themselves, so take it as their accounts 370 00:22:09.119 --> 00:22:12.559 rather than a verdict. Jim described a specific fear that 371 00:22:12.720 --> 00:22:15.880 stalked him in that corner position, what if the boat 372 00:22:15.920 --> 00:22:19.440 comes back up? Because if the boat re rided while 373 00:22:19.480 --> 00:22:22.279 all four men were in the aft cabin, all that 374 00:22:22.359 --> 00:22:25.200 gear would come down on them, the water would pour in, 375 00:22:25.880 --> 00:22:29.200 and the four disoriented men would be feeling for an 376 00:22:29.240 --> 00:22:32.880 exit in the dark. Glennie kept telling him never, she'll 377 00:22:32.920 --> 00:22:37.079 never turn right side up, and Jim's response, which tells 378 00:22:37.119 --> 00:22:39.640 you something about the mood in there, was that Glennie 379 00:22:39.680 --> 00:22:42.480 had also said she'd never flip over in the first place. 380 00:22:43.240 --> 00:22:45.880 He didn't have a lot of faith. Jim said, the 381 00:22:45.920 --> 00:22:49.359 first week, they all sweated so much that their perspiration 382 00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:52.279 gathered on the ceiling and dripped back down on them, 383 00:22:52.759 --> 00:22:56.079 like being in a cave, their own bodies raining on 384 00:22:56.119 --> 00:22:56.960 them in the dark. 385 00:22:57.440 --> 00:23:00.720 And what happened to those four psychologically is a pattern 386 00:23:00.799 --> 00:23:04.640 researchers see over and over. In isolation. You get confined 387 00:23:04.759 --> 00:23:13.799 environments like polar stations, submarines, long duration space crews, and involves, irritability, territory, 388 00:23:13.880 --> 00:23:20.200 fights over absurdly small things, factions, the authority figures status 389 00:23:20.279 --> 00:23:24.279 quietly eroding over time. Agencies screen and train for months 390 00:23:24.279 --> 00:23:26.839 to help crews survive each other. These four get a 391 00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:30.839 five second phone invitation and an AD from a backpacker's hostel. 392 00:23:31.319 --> 00:23:33.680 And here's the piece I find most human. For a 393 00:23:33.720 --> 00:23:38.359 claustrophobic band like Phil, panic and a genuine entrapment isn't irrational. 394 00:23:38.559 --> 00:23:41.039 It's a normal alarm with nowhere to go, But the 395 00:23:41.079 --> 00:23:44.119 account's described is still going to the opposite direction. Over 396 00:23:44.200 --> 00:23:49.039 four months, panic early and steadiness later. Routine and having 397 00:23:49.079 --> 00:23:51.799 actual jobs to do is usually going to reduce the 398 00:23:51.839 --> 00:23:53.480 panic and casey. 399 00:23:53.599 --> 00:23:56.519 This is actually an important concept in what we would 400 00:23:56.640 --> 00:24:00.880 call psychological first aid, attending to the psychology needs of 401 00:24:00.920 --> 00:24:06.960