The Tribune

By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

AN 80-year-old American veteran who ran his 35ft sailboat onto a reef near Mayaguana after steering alone for nearly two days without sleep has praised the fishermen and rescue worker who brought him safely ashore and helped prepare his damaged vessel for the journey to Florida.

Raymond Rosen was sailing from the northern coast of the Dominican Republic to Hollywood, Florida, to visit his 101-year-old mother when he fell asleep and struck the reef near Booby Cay earlier this month.

Mr Rosen said the boat’s engine was not working, preventing him from using the autopilot because the engine was needed to keep the batteries charged.

Unable to find anyone to accompany him, he steered the vessel by hand for almost two days. Although he had made the journey before with another sailor, he said he underestimated the difficulty of attempting it alone.

“After two nights without any sleep, I was hand steering for two days, and on the third night without any sleep, at one or three o’clock in the morning, I crashed into the reef off of the cay,” Mr Rosen said. “I should have gone to Salt Cay because it would have been closer, but I thought I could find French Cay off West Caicos by Providenciales and I never saw it in the morning.”

Mr Rosen said he continued towards Mayaguana before falling asleep on the third night.

“The third night I fell asleep and crashed into the reef,” he said. “I didn’t know where I woke up. I heard a terrible noise and I woke up and I thought I was out in the middle of the ocean. I had no idea I was just several hundred meters from the beach.”

After realising the vessel had grounded, Mr Rosen placed his emergency beacon in the water and watched it flash.

“I saw it flashing and I said ‘Okay, at least I’m not going to die. Somebody’s going to come and help me’, but nobody came,” he said. “The only people that came out were some fisherman.”

Several hours later, fishermen reached the reef and helped him off the vessel.

Lloyd Strachan said he and two other men were fishing near Booby Cay when they noticed the mast of a sailboat grounded on the reef that morning.

They saw an elderly man aboard and moved to assist him.

Mr Strachan said his vessel was already carrying a load of conch, which had to be accounted for before Mr Rosen could be taken ashore, but securing medical attention for the stranded sailor became the priority.

“He told me he hadn’t eaten for two days and was dehydrated,” Mr Strachan said. “I said we have to carry him right away. So we tell him get whatever proper documents or whatever he needs that’s important to him.”

Mr Strachan said the rescue interrupted the fishing trip, increased fuel costs and placed additional strain on his boat.

“The fuel condition was only sufficient for mainly to carry back the products ourselves because we didn’t go up there prepared to look for anybody,” he said. “You go towards what you can afford to get because gas is nine something a gallon.”

He said the vessel would have to be examined by a mechanic, but the financial cost was secondary.

Life, he said, came first.

After the fishermen brought Mr Rosen ashore, Patrick Collie, superintendent and a member of Mayaguana’s search and rescue team, was notified by the Royal Bahamas Defence Force shortly after 6am and travelled 27 miles to Booby Cay.

The fishermen had already removed Mr Rosen from the sailboat by the time Mr Collie arrived.

Mr Collie initially believed the vessel could not be salvaged, but after seeing that it remained afloat, he decided it could be recovered.

Mr Rosen was assessed and treated at the clinic before being checked into a hotel, where he remained while work continued on the boat.

Mr Collie said it took two days to remove the vessel from the reef. Its engine was repaired, a leaking rudder was fixed and the boat was prepared to continue its voyage.

He also arranged for another sailor to accompany Mr Rosen on the next leg of the journey to Florida.

Mr Collie said the incident was one of many rescues he has carried out during about 18 years of search and rescue work on Mayaguana.

“I do plenty rescues,” he said. “I was trained by the U.S. military for such land and sea rescue, so it’s not my first rodeo.”

Mr Collie described the work as charitable and said his responsibility did not end merely because Mr Rosen had reached land.

“As the search and rescue man, for me, my job finished when they see he up o land. But as the human side, my job finished when I see he up ad ruig and leaving Mayaguana i good condition,” he said.

Reflecting on the ordeal, Mr Rosen said the experience exposed him to both kindness and hardship, but he singled out Mr Collie for praise.

“I ran into the best of humanity and the worst of humanity all in one spot,” he said. “Patrick Collie is the best of humanity.”