Three Shipwrecked off Mexico Rescued After 8 Days in Raft

Three San Pedro residents whose yacht had capsized and sank in a storm were landed safely on the southern coast of Mexico Tuesday by the fishing vessel that rescued them after they had drifted for eight days in a life raft.

“It was a terrible experience,” recalled retired free-lance photographer Fred Poore, 56, Tuesday night after he and his wife, Patsy, and their friend, Ernest Carson, 47, reached the small port of Salina Cruz, more than 300 miles below Acapulco.

Poore said all were in relatively good shape with only some cuts and bruises when the pilot of a fish-spotting helicopter off the vessel Lupe Del Mar spotted their orange raft canopy about 165 miles off shore on Monday.

“We cried a lot,” said Poore, describing the joy at seeing the helicopter. “We had never given up. We were all convinced we were going to make it, but eight days starts to tax your patience a little.”

The Poores had lived aboard the 38-foot sailboat, Fancy, at San Pedro’s Holiday Harbor for several years, planning a voyage to the South Seas. They sailed to Costa Rica in October and were headed back to Acapulco and the Sea of Cortez, where they planned to wait for a time because Patsy Poore’s brother was ill in Denver and she wanted to be close enough to visit.

Carson, a retired refrigeration engineer who lives on his own boat in San Pedro, flew to Costa Rica to help the couple bring the Fancy north.

But on Feb. 8, Poore said, they were caught in a sudden storm with towering waves and 65-plus-knot winds. After one large wave struck, damaging masts and topside fittings, another wave pounded into the Fancy, rolling it in the sea 360 degrees.

“It sounded like the heaviest piece of artillery you’ve ever heard,” Poore said. “I think I was knocked a little cuckoo. Parts of it, I don’t remember at all.”

Fortunately, he said, none of the three had been topside, so all stayed with the boat. But as it started to sink and they realized they had no radio antenna left, they took to their life raft.

The storm kept up for two days. At 2 a.m. on Feb. 9, the raft was turned upside down and the three had to right it. A couple of hours later, it, too, made a complete roll in the water, dumping most supplies.

“If someone told me all this,” Poore said by telephone from a motel outside Salina Cruz where the three boaters stayed Tuesday night, “I wouldn’t believe it.”

Finally, he said, the weather calmed, but they were down to eating a few high-carbohydrate survival bars and rationing their small amount of water. They ran out of water entirely two days before they were rescued.

“We were watching a rain cloud hoping for some rain when the helicopter spotted us,” Poore said. “We had heard engines for several days, but we couldn’t see anything. Then the pilot found us.”

Poore said the crew of the fishing vessel “did everything for us,” including making arrangements for them ashore. “We lost all our money and can’t even prove who we are,” he said.

He said the three of them are to be X-rayed and tested at a hospital today, but are confident they have no serious injuries. They hope to be able to return to San Pedro by Thursday.

Times staff writer Patt Morrison contributed to this article.