Ordeal at Sea : 2 Men Saved After Clinging to Pontoons of Capsized Catamaran for 17 Hours

Talk about a wing and a prayer.

Two men adrift and clinging to the pontoons of their capsized catamaran spent 17 chilly hours at sea--passing the time talking, singing hymns and speculating about the impact of their deaths on family and friends--before being rescued Sunday morning, several miles from the Malibu coast.

Jeff Schroder, 29, of North Hollywood and Ivan Magana, 26, of Glendale said they were cold, exhausted and about out of hope when a boat suddenly appeared in the fog and brought them to safety.

“We cried with happiness and we thanked God,” Magana said Monday. “It was a miracle.”

Los Angeles County Lifeguard Lt. James Richards agreed. He said the two men survived Saturday night clad only in T-shirts and shorts despite a water temperature of about 65 degrees and air temperatures below 60 degrees. Any longer at sea and the men would have probably begun suffering from hypothermia, their bodies no longer able to keep vital organs warm and functioning, he said.

Being found on the foggy Sunday morning by a man on his way to San Francisco was a lucky, one-in-a-million break--”like finding a needle in the haystack,” Richards said.

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But Magana and Schroder say more than luck was involved. The two, who had met at a Christian church in Westwood and had purchased the 12-year-old catamaran together earlier this year, said it was an answer to their prayers.

“I believed God would find a way,” Magana said.

Magana and Schroder had launched the 16-foot Hobie Cat from Zuma Beach on Saturday afternoon and were heading back to shore when they hit a wave about 6 p.m. and capsized. Water that apparently leaked into the ship’s mast and pontoons made it impossible for the two men to right the craft.

Schroder said a military helicopter flying overhead appeared to spot them and the two men believed that help was on the way.

“But after about two hours we knew they weren’t coming,” said Schroder, an experienced sailor. “The sun had set and we tried rowing back to shore. But after awhile, we could see we weren’t getting any closer.”

In the darkness, as the two began to drift away from the lights on the coast, they said they realized that they would probably not be reported missing until at least Monday, when they were supposed to report to work.

By dawn Sunday, Schroder said, “It was obvious to us that we would not be able to make it to Monday morning.”

The two spent the night perched on the tip of the triangular-shaped pontoons, up to their knees in water. They had a single plastic bottle of drinking water, which they rationed through the night. When the conversation lagged, they sang. And in the pitch-black night, they fought against sleep, which would send them falling backward into the cold waters.

“We talked about our parents and the people that cared about us, how they would react, and whether we would have done anything differently if we knew it was going to be our last day,” said Schroder, who works as a benefits analyst for the Walt Disney Co.

Schools of porpoises kept the two company overnight. The sea below them glowed at times like a blue light from the phosphorescence of ocean plankton. Once they saw a huge shape, the size of a whale or great shark. But then, they are not sure what was real and what was a hallucination.

Said Magana, an accountant, “I am from El Salvador. I was thinking, ‘Here I survived all the bullets there and now I am going to die in the middle of the ocean. At least with bullets, you die quickly. This was a horrible way to die.’ ”

At daylight, the two made their last effort to right the craft.

“A storm front had come and we couldn’t see land. The waves were starting to pick up and we made a decision to give one last shot at getting it up and sailing,” Schroder said. “We did that for about 10 minutes and we stopped . . . we had lost our direction and we were freezing.”

In a last-ditch effort to warm themselves, the two used a car key to cut a piece of the nylon jib sail large enough to wrap around their shoulders.

Finally by 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Schroder said, “We had done all we could . . . there was nothing left to do.” The last of their strength, and hope, began to slip away, they said.

About 20 minutes later, they spotted a boat about a mile or so away. They tied a piece of the sail to their paddle and waved it but the boat pulled away.

Then, another boat appeared, this one only about 300 yards away. Schroder took off his bright orange T-shirt and tied that to the paddle and waved. The two were finally spotted.

The boat’s captain, Bob Griffith, of Orinda, Calif., brought the two men aboard and gave them blankets and some milk. Later, a county lifeguard crew took them to the Malibu Pier, and they were given a ride to their car.

Although warm and safe for the first time in nearly 18 hours, their adventure was not quite over.

“Somebody had stolen a bag that had our shoes and clean clothes from the truck,” Schroder said.

Looking back, the two laughed with relief and shook their heads while talking about their weekend at sea.

“It’s like we got a second chance,” Magana said.