The weather continued to deteriorate. The sailboat was driven at an
incredible speed by the wind. The wife retreated into the cabin, where she
was tossed around and battered black and blue. The husband clung tenaciously
to the wheel of the ship and to the hope that he could save his ship and
their lives. They raced out of control, driven by the wind along the coast
of the state of Washington. (On shore, people listening to the wind blow
through the trees likened it to standing next to a jet plane rushing down the
runway.) In a matter of hours the sailboat covered a distance which would
normally take days of sailing.
Both husband and wife were near exhaustion. Hoping to escape the terrific
winds, they turned into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. However, the winds blew
as hard in the Strait as they had in the open waters of the Pacific. The
last sail was torn to shreds. A sea anchor was tossed out. Both husband and
wife, deeply fatigued, were losing hope of saving their lives.
Meanwhile people along the coast became aware through television that a
life-and-death drama was being enacted in the Strait. The Coast Guard
dispatched a rescue helicopter to follow the boat, but the boat was tossing and
pitching so wildly in the storm that lowering a rescue basket to the two was
out of the question. They also found a translator who could communicate with
the pair on board, but still there seemed no way to rescue the couple. At any
moment they expected the boat to go under.
At this time a Chinese super-freighter was headed toward Seattle. The
captain, hearing of the plight of the two on board the sailboat, devised a plan
to save them both.
