Leading up to the 28th of December, the team had rowed 867 NM and had been facing large aggressive swells, over 30’, and 30+ knot winds. The sea state up to this point had been rather rough and winds had been pushing the team south with very little margin for error. With the team dropping south and the Trade Winds not establishing as well as hoped for, the team made a W/SW cut to prevent from dropping too far south. 

On December 28th at approximately 0330 UTC in the morning, the boat was hit by a strong gust of wind that can only be described as “a freight train”. The boat was just cresting the top of a wave when the wind flipped the boat upside down, straight down a wave. Will and Chad, who were on deck and harnessed in, were ejected from the boat. Upon realizing that the boat was not self-righting, they attempted to right it manually, but they were unsuccessful. The decision was made to deploy the life raft which was secured to the deck, but now under the boat. Will and Chad were able to communicate with Nick and Tommy, through the closed hatch doors, inside their cabins during the deployment of the life raft. Nick, in the aft cabin, relayed he was taking on water and Chad assisted him in getting out of the cabin, and then he made his way to the life raft. Upon opening the door to the aft cabin, the aft end of the boat dropped substantially further, now that it had filled with water. While Nick secured the life raft to the side of the boat, Will used the external bow cabin pump to start removing the water that was slowly coming into the bow cabin. While Will was pumping, Chad worked on removing the “Go-Bag” from the rail, and cleared other unnecessary items for Will and Tommy to have a clear path to the life raft. While all this was going on, the life-raft was damaged and began leaking. Nick was able to plug the hole with his thumb, while still keeping hold of the boat. With Will pumping, it provided Tommy time to grab a satellite phone, handheld VHF radio, and handheld GPS unit.  Chad returned to the life raft with the “Go Bag” and immediately activated the emergency EPIRB and backup PLB. Will then assisted Tommy with getting out of the bow cabin and they made their way to the life raft. 

With all four crew members in the life raft, the team tied a line to the nose of the boat in an attempt to stay attached to it. But, due to the sea state, within a few minutes, the line attaching the boat to the raft snapped, and the last time they saw the “Woobie”, it was floating away upside down.  The time was 0413 UTC.

The crew had gotten into the life raft with 3 PLB’s and an EPIRB, which were immediately activated, one sat phone, which got wet and became inoperable during the evacuation of the boat, a waterproof VHF radio, a GPS unit, and a small assortment of other emergency gear.  The hole in the life raft tube was eventually plugged(mostly), though it still needed to be pumped up every 30 minutes.  While the two guys were pumping, Will would make a Mayday call on the radio.  This 30 minute routine continued throughout the day.  The team assumed that with their PLB’s activated, the safety officer of the race coordinators, Atlantic Campaigns, had been notified and a rescue was under way.  This was not the case.  The emergency signal that was transmitted via PLB, was transferred to the closest country to the team at that time, a group of islands called Cape Verde, Africa.  But that country did nothing with the signals, and ignored them.  No rescue had been coordinated.

 At approximately 1830 UTC, the team made contact with the 700’ cargo vessel Hanze Goteborg, which was about 15 nautical miles away at the time, and was able to relay their GPS location.  The Hanze Goteborg had left its last port in South Africa on Dec. 11, after a 24 hour weather delay, and was headed north in the Atlantic Ocean with a destination of Montreal, Canada.  They were the only ship within 400 NM.  After several hours of communicating back and forth, the Hanze Goteborg slowed way down and made its way towards the coordinates the team had relayed to them in an effort to rescue them.  The ship spotted the strobing lights of the team in their life raft and positioned the ship right next to the life raft.  The team and the crew of the Hanze Goteborg then executed one of the most dangerous procedures that can take place in a maritime environment, a ship to ship transfer, in a 20’+ swell and at night.  One at a time, each team member climbed up a 20’ rope ladder that hung over the side of the ship. With Tommy being the last one on deck, the team was all safe at 2130 UTC, having been in the life raft for nearly 18 hours.

The team spent 13 days on the Hanze Goteborg with the 19 crewmembers of the ship, and traveled 3016 miles to a port just outside of Montreal, CA.  The team was greeted by their significant others and a few others upon arrival into Canada.  

We, the team, would like to thank everyone that supported our campaign to help raise awareness for the issues that plague the Veteran community.  Though we didn’t finish the race, we believe that we are alive today for a reason.  You will continue to see us in our respective communities speaking about Veteran issues and our life experiences, and the miracles that happened that day.  

Also, thank you to the amazing crew of the Hanze Goteborg, they saved our lives that night.