Great Sea Adventure Ends in Risky Rescue

With the coming of the dawn, Michael Kinloch could finally see the enormous size of the waves that had been crashing over the sailboat.

In the darkness, he had felt them slam and occasionally caught a glimpse of lines of foam. But in the light, he came face-to-face with the 50-foot waves that broke all around the 27-foot sailboat as the seas grew rougher and more ominous.

Then, in an instant, came the wave that pounded over the deck, mountains of water that flipped the boat completely over in a full circle. Kinloch could feel himself being pulled down into the water, then come up the other side as the boat righted itself.

Down below, Kinloch’s father, Charles, had been knocked unconscious. Blood poured from his forehead. He would find out later that six of his ribs had been broken in the fall. Water swirled through the cabin while, on deck, Michael fought to keep the boat on course.

The boat was sinking by now. The father and son, together for a great adventure, were 650 miles off the coast of Washington in the icy waters of the Pacific.

On Friday, six days later, the two sat in the brilliant sun of Long Beach Harbor, on the top deck of a giant South Korean freighter. They watched as the U.S. Coast Guard officer pinned an award on the freighter captain’s shirt collar. And then father and son each accepted a framed picture of the two of them being pulled from their tiny red life raft.

The story of Michael and Charles Kinloch is one of survival in the face of great odds. And it is the story of a captain who raced to the rescue, pulling his 915-foot ship within a few feet of the bobbing life raft to pluck the two men from the water.

It is not the story the two Kinlochs would have envisioned when their journey began in New Zealand more than a month ago.

In his youth, Charles had been something of an adventurer, making two trans-Pacific voyages from his home in British Columbia to New Zealand in the late 1950s. In 1965, he worked as a crewman on a fishing trawler that sailed from the North Sea to New Zealand.

But then marriage and family came into his life and Kinloch the adventurer became Kinloch the Canadian farmer. Almost three decades later, with the children grown and gone, Kinloch wanted one last great adventure. Through relatives living in New Zealand, the 61-year-old man heard of a Vancouver 27 sailboat that was for sale there for a good price. His 25-year-old son Michael insisted on coming along.

“I couldn’t have beat him off with a pit bull,” said Charles, sitting Friday afternoon in the captain’s cabin of the Hyundai Baron.

So off they flew to New Zealand, where Charles bought the sailboat Nanu Phar. And at first it was like a sailor’s dream--24 days from New Zealand to Tahiti, 26 days from Tahiti to Hawaii and then 14 days at sea on the last leg of the journey home.

Then the barometer began to drop. The seas grew more fearsome and both men donned their foul weather gear.

“We were surfing down waves in the boat,” said Michael.

After days of foul weather, the great last wave hit and Michael struggled to get the life raft over the side. In the process, it flipped over and almost all the supplies were dumped in the swirling ocean.

Michael went below and helped his groggy father to the deck and into the raft. His father safely on the raft, Michael decided to go back on the boat for more gear. But just then, the rope connecting the raft to the bow snapped. The two men, one of them badly injured, were adrift in the Pacific.

One thing the raft did have was an emergency radio beacon that, when activated, gives the position of a boat or raft to the Coast Guard. But in the stormy seas, the Coast Guard was picking up more than 600 “echo hits” in a 600,000-square-mile area off the Pacific Northwest. The best the Coast Guard could do was begin the time-consuming task of overflying the region.

Down below, with the raft canopy zipped against the storm outside, the Kinlochs lay stiff and cold. The solar blankets that had been part of the emergency equipment had been washed out of the raft as Michael was getting it in the water. The two rationed their small supply of food and water.

Water seeped into the raft and Michael spent most of his waking hours soaking it up with a sponge, but still they usually lay in a couple of inches of water. Charles said there was no talk of despair, though both knew what the worst outcome might be.

“We’re not panicking kinds of people,” he said. “We chatted about it every once in awhile just to drag it out of the dark.”

On the fourth day on the raft, Charles was the first to hear the drone of the far-off plane.

“I just thought to myself, ‘There they are,’ ” he said.

And, indeed, there they were. The Coast Guard C-130 cargo plane dropped the two men a parachute with a radio attached. Then the Hyundai Baron, about 100 miles from the raft, was asked to change course and make a rescue attempt.

Capt. Jae Kab Yang called a meeting of his officers and told them of the mission. He also asked how the two men, one of them injured, might be rescued given the 15-foot waves and high winds that were blowing.

Ho Sang Jeong, the chief engineer, suggested the construction of a large steel cage that could be lowered over the side. Using welding torches, he completed the job in two hours.

Charles Kinloch did not see the ship until it was next to the raft. He was in great pain and the canopy was closed.

“It was smooth and soft as a kitten,” he said of the giant ship’s approach. “When I did look out, it was like looking at the side of an apartment building.”

Jeong was in the cage and the elder Kinloch was the first out of the raft. Then came his son. Within minutes, both were in steaming baths, the first time they had been warm since the great wave had struck. That was last Tuesday. The freighter steamed into Long Beach, its planned port of call, late Thursday night, and on Friday, both men walked around in clothes borrowed from the crew.

“We have divided loyalties,” said the elder Kinloch. “We are thankful to the Coast Guard and we are thankful to the people on this ship.”

Their goal for the afternoon was to go shopping and then think about going home.

“We’ve got to get some clothes,” said Michael.

The raft was on the top deck of the freighter Friday afternoon, brought there for the ceremony. In a corner was a fresh inscription: “Sept. 26. A very good day. Thank you, the crew of the Hyundai Baron, for saving our souls.”

It was signed “Mike Kinloch.”