Pilot Boards Blind Sailor’s Boat to Help It to Bermuda

A pilot boarded blind sailor Jim Dickson’s boat in the Atlantic Ocean today to guide it through rough seas to Bermuda, a rescue official said.

Despite 10-foot waves and high winds, the skipper of a Bermuda lifeboat was able to get his vessel close enough to Dickson’s craft for the pilot to leap onto the pitching deck, said Timothy Winkelmann of Bermuda’s Rescue Coordination Center.

Dickson set sail from Portsmouth, R.I., on Aug. 4 for England in the hope of becoming the first sightless sailor to cross the Atlantic. Thursday he decided to ride out a tropical storm at sea off Bermuda.

The pilot, Paul Petronello, boarded Dickson’s yacht, the Eye Opener, shortly after noon local time, Winkelmann said.

“It was a very difficult transfer but Paul managed to do it,” said Winkelmann, who estimates that seas in the area were as high as 10 feet and that winds were gusting up to 35 m.p.h.

Winkelmann added that two other ships were having difficulty in Bermuda’s waters in the wake of Tropical Storm Arlene.

Petronello, whose Rhode Island company built Dickson’s vessel, spoke to the sailor on a ship-to-shore line Thursday afternoon. “Jim joked that he had spoken to God a few times over the last 24 hours and that he was looking forward to seeing Bermuda,” said Petronello, adding that Dickson appeared to be “in good humor.”