FIVE DAYS OF FEAR
A SURVIVOR of a yachting tragedy in the Philippines, Cairns man Laurie Miller, has spoken about the five terrifying days he spent drifting in a life raft and the pain of having to say goodbye to his good mate, Townsville’s Anthony “Johnny” Mahoney.
THE North Queensland survivor of a sailing tragedy in the Philippines has told how he begged his dying Townsville mate to live “because he owed me a beer”.
Speaking for the first time about the harrowing ordeal, Cairns boatie Laurie Miller told how three sailors spent five days in a life raft being smashed by a typhoon only for his mate Anthony “Johnny” Mahoney to die in hospital hours after their rescue by a Filipino fishing boat.
Mr Miller and Mr Mahoney were delivering a yacht to the Philippines with the boat’s new owner, Lionel Ansselin, in December last year when disaster struck.
It was Mr Miller who made the heart- wrenching decision to abandon the sinking ship in the face of a fierce typhoon.
He said the decision still keeps him awake at night as he mourns the mate who never made it home.
“When you’re out in the deep blue you find out a lot about a man,” he said. “Out there, the bulls--stops. And there was no bulls-- about Johnny. In the hospital, I stood by his bed and told him to get his a-- e in gear because he owed me a beer. But he never regained consciousness.
“I’ve always been a great sleeper and I could usually sleep standing up. But I’ve had more than a few sleepless nights since. I believe I did the right thing ( in abandoning ship), but I wonder whether I could have done better, or more.”
Mr Miller said Mr Ansselin checked with the Coast Guard about weather forecasts on the final leg of their journey but was told there was nothing worth worrying about.
Later, Mr Ansselin’s Filipina wife would lament that if he had only rung her from Davao she could have warned him about the typhoon they were heading straight for.
Early on December 13, Mr Miller discovered the Katerina was taking on water.
For several hours the trio tried to bail water out, but it was coming in quicker than they could get rid of it.
With the rain and wind of the typhoon smashing them, Mr Miller called to abandon ship. Setting off an EPIRB rescue beacon at 1pm, the trio launched the life raft, along with Mr Ansselin’s pet dogs, Lucky and Spotty. Within hours they had been repeatedly flipped by cyclonic seas while most of their supplies, and one of the dogs, were gone.
“You could hear these waves bearing down on us like an approaching freight train,” Mr Miller said. “We got flipped twice in succession and I had to go out and right us up again, but we lost most of our supplies so we had no food and no water. At some point we lost our sea anchor so we just kept getting rolled over.”
For five days they sat in waistdeep water, praying for rescue.
“Those days just all dragged in to one never- ending nightmare,” Mr Miller said.
“You tried to sleep when you could, but we were soaking wet, Johnny was always cold, we were getting salt water sores. We didn’t eat, we had nothing to drink.
“We got tipped over again and lost the flares and the other dog so we set off the other EPIRB.
“The dog’s little life jacket was just floating there in the life raft, but he was gone.”
The area had a notorious reputation for sharks, but in a small mercy for the sailors, none came near the life raft. Despite their peril, Mr Miller never gave up hope of being rescued. “I’ve always been the supreme optimist,” he said.
“We saw a couple of ships in the distance but by then we had lost our flares. It was my belief, wrongly as it turned out, that people were out looking for us and any minute now we would hear a helicopter or boat engine coming towards us.”
The rescue response, or lack of, still angers Mr Miller. On the fifth day the weather cleared and the group raised their hopes, though Mr Mahoney was fading. “He was getting delirious,” Mr Miller said.
“We were all struggling, but Johnny more than us. We tethered him to the raft to keep him safe.”
Then, a sound, different to the relentless crashing of waves against the raft: a boat motor coming towards them. Two Filipino men in a fishing canoe, not even a metre wide, had spotted them.
They rescued the trio and headed back to land, a five- hour journey in the small boat. “I tried getting Johnny to drink some water but he had his teeth clenched and was saying he didn’t want it.”
By the time they reached the town of Tandag, Mr Mahoney had lost consciousness. The trio were rushed to hospital. Mr Mahoney was placed on a stretcher and while Mr Miller tried to walk, his knees quickly buckled and he collapsed to the ground.
The hospital was basic and while Mr Miller and Mr Ansselin were rehydrated, it became clear there was nothing they could do for Mr Mahoney, who had suffered severe dehydration and multi- organ failure. “One of the fishermen’s wives spoke pretty good English and she said it didn’t look like he was going to make it,” Mr Miller said.
“So I went down to his room and stood beside his bed and told him to get his a-- e in gear because he owed me a beer.” He returned later to say goodbye. “I kissed him on the chin and said that was from everybody,” he said