Depth of Field

Kevin Dolan: Survivor at Sea

Every savvy sailor knows the potential perils of offshore cruising, but few people know those risks better than Seattleite Kevin Dolan. Having made the Pacific trip four times from Seattle to California as a delivery captain, it was Kevin’s fifth trip in 2007 that made him reevaluate ever doing it again.

Kevin, recently engaged at the time, and his friend, Greg, were 80 miles offshore of the infamous California danger zone at Cape Mendocino when the Nauticat they were delivering to Mexico was broadsided by a massive wave. The wave broached the sloop, causing the starboard cabin windows to smash from the force of impact. Before the boat righted itself, the now-open portlights permitted green water to partially fill the hull. With no chance to keep up with manual pumping, and no power to run the electrics (including the VHF radio), the vessel and crew were sitting ducks in a notorious patch of water.

“I activated both our EPIRBs, and when the Coast Guard chopper arrived for an airlift, I left one attached to the hatch of the boat,” Kevin says. “The Coast Guard told us later that they had found the second EPIRB, but there was no longer a boat attached to it.”

I asked Kevin whether they would have done anything differently in retrospect, and he offered what seems like sage advice to anyone cruising offshore (or inshore, for that matter): “I wish we had just slowed down, taken our time and waited for improved weather and sea conditions.”