By: Pino L. Bacinello
M.V. Bella Ciao
Its Thursday September 5th, 2002 Elaine's birthday dinner was to take place at a quiet spot where good food, relaxation and good times are a part of the norm. This would naturally be our boat! What was not part of the norm is the advent of an event that was about to change our lives and hopefully with this article, those of many around us.
We took a Seair floatplane from south terminal in Richmond and flew right to our dock and within 15 feet of Bella Ciao that was moored at Secret Cove, an RVYC out station. We had taken the boat up a previous week end and were planning on enjoying the week ends up there while flying back to work on Mondays as we had done the previous year. Only one other boat was docked there hence the dock was to ourselves. This is the beauty of winter and shoulder season boating. Secret Cove is a most beautiful and secluded spot with calmness and solitude to make any stressed person such as myself come right down. We had a wonderful dinner by candlelight on the picnic table on the dock surrounded by a candle and tranquility. As usual, we opened a good bottle of wine and toasted to our Italian custom, "Al Mare, Al amore, A noi, a sempre". This means: To the sea, to love, to us and to forever.
The next morning we left Secret Cove for a casual cruise up to the Garden Bay out station in Pender Harbor. The sun was beaming in the sky, the sky was blue and only a light breeze kept us from really being hot and thinking we were in real heaven. Another wonderful day in paradise we thought as we cruised at a slow 7 to 10 knots up to Garden Bay with no desire to even get up on a plane, let alone get up to cruising speed. Bella Ciao a 10meter Prowler performed beautifully as always and loved towing its little baby, Bellina. Bellina is 17.5 foot Boston Whaler Montac and tender to Bella Ciao.
Seas were calm, with only a ripple. It was a gorgeous morning that had to be cherished, some how, we did not really know it at the time..., not consciously anyway.
Docked at Garden Bay, we could not wait to put the crab and prawn pots down and then we planned on replenishing our supplies for the evening. We thought we would be back to enjoy our catch for dinner.
We put on our life jackets and checked all the safety gear and electronics as we always do when we go on either the whaler or the dinghy, put the life jacket on to Sugar, our 13 year old Lasha Apsho and we took off and put the pots down just off Francis Point. We then came back to the local Pender Harbour IGA for some good organic fruits and vegetables and some fish for bait. We fueled up Bellina at Hospital Bay and replenished our depleting supply of wine and prawn pellets. We then decided to go out and pull the pots as they had now been down for about 2 to 3 hours.
It was about 18:00 Hrs as we made our way slowly out of the bay. Elaine and I have had substantial training and experience that went from basic power and sail to advanced navigation, weather and Coast Guard Auxiliary training. We always monitor Channel 16 when out and always listen to the weather conditions before heading out. This was no different. Bellina also served as a Coast Guard Auxiliary vessel in Crescent Beach and has had hundreds of hours in rough seas, calm seas and all in between. She has always felt and been very safe. She was equipped with Radar, GPS-Map Plotter, VHF radio, and depth sounder; an additional waterproof Icom VHF hand held radio was at the helm. Flares in a dry stowage container below the helm, exceeded all the safety requirements outlined in the Safe Boating guide and was powered by a 115 Mercury, newly installed in 2000, with an auxiliary 9.9. We had just finished a refit on it that included some new gel coating, new upholstery and much more. The boat was immaculate and though the seas appeared choppy as we got to the mouth of the bay they certainly did not appear to be too rough for our comfort zone based on our knowledge and experience.
We had been out in much worse conditions and this was just a little uncomfortable but nothing to stop us from retrieving our prawn pots..... we thought....
18:30 we are at the first pot. We had 3 down. Winds are blowing at about 15 knots from the Northwest. Seas are about a 3-foot chop mixed with a low swell. Elaine is at the controls to keep us into the wind. I pull up the first pot with almost a full dinner count of prawns. I proceed to empty the pot into a bucket and though we do not usually do this, as at times we have had some pots disappear, we thought we would put the pot back down and retrieve it again at some time the next day.
18:45 and we are on to the second pot. As I am pulling up the second pot, Elaine is struggling to keep Bellina into the waves. She says to me "the controls are sticking". Within a few seconds, she cannot change from neutral into forward. Seeing the sea conditions in such a situation, I release the prawn pot immediately, line and all, and go to the controls. By this time the engine stalled and would not restart, as we could not get it out of what now appeared to be in gear and into neutral.
After a few attempts, I abandoned the task and proceeded to start the auxiliary engine so that we could at least maintain our bow into the waves and not get swamped. As I am struggling with all this, and in a matter of seconds, the seas turn Bellina around and start to flood the aft. Bellina had an automatic bilge pump that I switched to manual mode as all this happened but, one wave was so big that it flooded the whole boat with about 12" of water.
At this point we knew we were in trouble and as Elaine was previously trying to balance the boat, I called to her to call a MAY DAY. The words did not finish coming out of my mouth when we got port side swept by another wave that flipped the boat up at about 50 degrees when I last remember having my feet still on the boat. At this time Elaine jumped into the water so as not to get trapped under it or in the case of sinkable vessels being sucked in by the sinking water.
Very quickly, from the aft I only had time to grab Sugar by the handle of her life jacket, look at where Elaine was and jump to within close range. I did not let go of Sugar and as I resurfaced I pulled Sugar up and ensured that I was close to Elaine.
The vessel was now upside down and I was in disbelief.
We did not get the chance to call a May Day... Could we have called it earlier?...... Could we have avoided going out in such conditions?... All thoughts were quickly put out of my mind and I went into survival mode. If we delayed action for much longer we could have separated and/or not been able to get back on the boat's bottom. Knowing that a Boston Whaler would not sink, though clearly they can flip..... like any other, I instructed Elaine to swim to the boat and climb on. "But what if it sinks", she called out.... "It will not sink", I replied firmly. "Swim to it and get up on it right now. Boston Whalers do not sink!"
I swam to the boat and placed Sugar on top. Climbed on and helped Elaine get up on it and instructed her to straddle the hull. At this point we inflated our life jackets and being sure that some one saw us, told Elaine not to worry, as some one will have seen us for sure. By now we were about a mile from land off Pearson Island. Sitting on top of our upside down blue bottom Whaler, life jackets on and hoping for some one to see us or hear our whistles while slowly drifting towards Francis point and being pounded by the waves. We were cold.... really cold.... the waves were pounding on my back up to my mid back and shoulders. I cannot imagine how cold we would have been if we had not got up on the hull. We would not have survived half an hour, as it is a well-known fact that one would be severely hypothermic within 20 minutes in these waters. Beyond that... You're toast..!
I did not know this at the time for sure but I suspected that as a result of what took place, we were towing the prawn pot. This was a good thing as it acted as a sea anchor and our drift on the bottom of Bellina was amazingly stable and slow in spite of the heavy waves and winds.
19:00 all we had is each other, our life jackets with the whistles attached and a huge desire to live. We blew our whistles constantly and in turns in order to conserve energy and ensure we did not get light headed. There was no traffic to speak of. A plane went by at some distance but obviously did not see us. A tug went through in the distance and the same thing. Two boats went into Garden Bay from Desolation and one came out going to Desolation but again, no sign of any one seeing us. The wind was blowing the sound of our whistles away from the homes and down towards Francis Point where there are no residences. No one could even hear us and obviously no one knew we were there. I had my cell phone on my belt but they tend to not like salty water and hence did not work. Suddenly, one of the oars worked its way out of the boat and floated passed me. It was all I could do to not reach for it so that we could use it as a propelling or steering device. I also knew though, that this reach could place me in danger of falling off the boat and or jerkin the boat enough to place Elaine and Sugar in jeopardy so I watched as it slowly floated by.
19:30 the sun was going down and fast. We were getting really cold and getting closer together to keep ourselves warm, still whistling, still struggling with every ounce of energy not to get panicked. Sugar kept us both warm as we huddled her but she was so cold that she too was shivering and crying. She did not move though. She knew we were in trouble..
20:00 no sight of any marine or air traffic at all. Where are all those float planes that constantly fly overhead when you need them? I thought.... Is there anyone out there...? Will the current and wind drift us to the point and close enough to safely swim ashore? ..., will we have to spend the night out here in this cold ?.... will we make it ?... All these thoughts crossed our minds. We were shivering and starting to become hypothermic. We did all we could to minimize the shivering so as not to use up additional energy. Elaine thought of all positive things such as the flowers that were waiting for us at Bella Ciao. The wedding ring that she was to come with me to see three days from now, her children etc... At one point she started chanting and that was very beautiful. It kept her focused and at peace and away from the desperation mode that could have deprived her and us of valuable energy that was needed for survival.
20:15 it was getting dark. I still had my prescription sunglasses on but was so dark that I had to take them off. I did not have my regular glasses so I was unable to see very much or very far adding to the stress. I was however, soon after, able to see a boat coming from the Malaspina straight and more specifically from Welcome passage. This truly was welcomed. The boat was slow and went in to a bay approximately 4 NM south of us and hope was starting to get questioned. It appeared that they did not see us and most likely too far away to hear our whistle.
The boat hovered around the little bay and clearly, they were prawning. I then decided to get my white handkerchief out and stand on the top of the bottom of the boat and wave the handkerchief blow the whistles and shout for help. It was what appeared to be our last chance. After a little while, though it appeared to be a long time, I saw their navigation lights come on and I could clearly see some white sea foam at their bow, which meant that they were coming towards us. They had seen or heard us... I sat back down straddling the boat and told Elaine that they had seen us. Not been sure if I was just keeping her hopes up or if I was serious, she questioned me and I told her to look behind her. She did and turned around with a great sigh of relief.
20:30 the vessel Raubette was now here and threw us out a line, which we proceeded to tie to the bow of the boat's bottom cleat. They then got close to us and we transferred on to their vessel where I advised Comox Coast Guard Radio of what had happened. CCR sent the Auxiliary unit out of Pender Harbour to assist in the towing of the vessel back to RVYC out station. In the mean time, those wonderful people gave us a change of clothing and blankets to keep us warm. We were hypothermic but not serious. We survived it. We passed the test.... we thought....
The following week end, we flew back up. Spent the week end there and with "Bella Ciao" went to retrieve the prawn pots that where left there the previous week end. The seas were calm and the sun was shining. We got to the mouth of the bay overlooking the strait and the port engine sounded funny. Thinking it was a shift in wind direction I ignored it but was aware.... Elaine said to me "there is something wrong, the engine does not sound right and I can smell something". I turned the boat around so that we would be at least heading back towards shore and gave the helm to Elaine while I proceeded to investigate. The port engine did sound funny. The smell was of Coolant and by now the engine temperature alarm was going off. We shut the port engine down and when I went into the engine room I found the port engine compartment with about 6 inches of water and filling fast. Having plugs at the ready, I proceeded to investigate where the water was coming from thinking that it might be coming form the shaft stuffing box. It was not, we did not hit anything that we felt so where could it be coming from?. As I felt around I felt that the pipe from the return raw water intake was off. Not long before I paid some one who was supposed to not only know what he was doing but also do what he got paid for with no limitation and one of the things that he was requested to do was ensure that all clamps where secure and tight and all hoses double clamped. Well, this one was not and it corroded off. I proceeded to re insert the hose with dual clamps, allowed the engine to cool down and restart it while pumping out the excess water with a hand pump. We then proceeded to collect our pots successfully and catching enough prawn for dinner.
The sea was once again kind to us. Our toast has since changed, it is now, al mare, al amore, a noi, a sempre and alla vita, which means to the sea, to love, to us, to forever and to life!. One that we have gained a greater appreciation for.
What have we learned from all this? Much! And though the most important lesson was how precious and fragile life is, there were also some very valuable Boating Safety lessons that I would like to share with those who love the sea like we do.
Thankful to be alive to share this with others
Pino and Elaine and Sugar
MV Bella Ciao and ex tender Bellina