On March 13, a group of friends were 13 days into a journey crossing from the Galápagos to French Polynesia aboard the 44-foot sailboat, Raindancer when they heard a loud ‘Bang.’ Rick Rodriguez, owner of Raindancer was enjoying pizza when the stern of the boat lifted up, and to starboard. They had collided with a whale. They inflated their liferaft, loaded up their dinghy with food, water and communications gear and within 15 minutes, the sailboat had disappeared below the water.
Rodriguez made a mayday call on the VHF radio before he and his friends escaped onto the lifeboat and dinghy. In an article from The Washington Post Rodriguez recalled that there was “no emotion,” while they quickly gathered supplies. “While we were getting things done, we all had that feeling, ‘I can’t believe this is happening,’ but it didn’t keep us from doing what we needed to do and prepare ourselves to abandon ship,” he said.
After 10 hours adrift, a civilian boat, Rolling Stone, peicked them up in what can only be considered a seamless rescue. Raindancer was equipped with multiple communication devices and emergency equipment and her crew was trained for worst case scenarios. Since 2007, about 1,200 collisions between whales and boats have been recorded. One of the friends onboard, Alana Litz believes the whale was a Bryde’s whale, and the crew saw the whale bleeding as it swam away.
“I feel very lucky, and grateful, that we were rescued so quickly,” Rodriguez said. “We were in the right place at the right time to go down.”
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