OCC Sailor: ‘I Thought . . . It Was Going Down’

Eight men were asleep on the 66-foot sailboat Bonaire, lulled by the gentle rocking of the Pacific, when a booming thud jolted them awake.

The sailors, a mix of experienced seamen and neophytes from an Orange Coast College sailing program, swarmed over the ketch for the next half-hour, trying to discover what had happened and whether they were in danger.

“I thought the mast had broken the ship and that it was going down,” Robert Pelletier, a student sailor on board, said Wednesday via ship-to-shore telephone from the German cargo ship Seurat.

“For about half an hour there was chaos. I had a strong fear that we would end up in a life raft. Everybody got on deck, we put on life preservers and we sent out a mayday call.”

It turned out that the mast step, which supports the base of the 80-foot main mast at the keel, had collapsed, causing the mast to drop a foot. Though the fears subsided into a calm and organized effort to save the Bonaire, ultimately the crew from Orange Coast College was forced to abandon the $500,000 vessel 800 miles northeast of Hawaii and hitch rides on two commercial ships headed to Panama.

The first group, including Pelletier, is expected to dock today.

The 33-year-old software consultant from Newport Beach is a student in the college’s school of sailing and seamanship. With him on the Seurat are four other OCC students and a first mate of the Bonaire, all from Orange County.

They, along with the captain and another first mate, were two weeks into their voyage from Hawaii home to Newport Beach when the mast dropped. The boat, owned by the college, had been chartered by a group of Newport Beach yachtsmen who had sailed it in the Transpacific Yacht Race.

The trip was to be an educational experience for Pelletier, who has moderate sailing experience, as well as for four students with little seagoing expertise who had won scholarships to serve as deckhands.

“Certainly I’ve increased my resume in a way I never imagined,” Pelletier joked.

He praised the captain, Marcus Mackenzie of Newport Beach, and first mate Robert White of Costa Mesa, both on the staff of the college’s seamanship program, saying they worked quickly to stabilize the mast by tightening the rigging and making contact with the U.S. Coast Guard. The captain kept everyone on board calm and organized, he said.

“He . . . made all the right decisions,” Pelletier said. “I learned a lot about sailing and dealing with disaster watching how he handled it.”

But the danger persisted, Pelletier said. The mast could have toppled or dropped farther and punched a hole through the hull, he said. “Every six to eight hours we had to tighten up the rigging.”

Still, there was little immediate danger, Pelletier said. The sea was calm, lifeboats were ready to board and the Coast Guard knew their location.

That proved fortunate, because it took the Coast Guard two days to locate an appropriate ship to rescue them. One ship was steaming in the wrong direction, toward Singapore. An oceangoing tugboat lacked a launch to pick them up.

“Of course that added to the stress, waiting another day to be picked up,” Pelletier said.

Finally, the Seurat picked up the five students and one of the first mates two days after the mast step collapsed.

“It was a huge relief,” said Pelletier. “But none of us were happy to leave the Bonaire abandoned like that.”

Mackenzie and White chose to stay on board and try to sail Bonaire to port. But three days later, they gave up and were picked up by a Japanese automobile carrier, expected to arrive in Panama on Monday.

Bonaire, which was donated to the college last November, is insured, college officials said. The boat was expected to sink a few days after it was abandoned.

Margaret Gratton, president of OCC, said she was proud of how the sailing program handled its misfortune.

“In many ways it demonstrated the competency of the program,” she said. “All communications were expertly done. All decision-making was done expediently and carefully.”

Pelletier agreed.

“An event like this can happen anywhere at any time,” said Pelletier, who knows about risk after running a hang-gliding school for six years. “I have no ill feelings about sailing or the crew. Everyone did the best they could.”

The Seurat’s crew has been hospitable, he said, feeding their guests well and conducting tours. “This is kind of a vacation they are having here,” said the Seurat’s captain, Klaus-Peter Tummeley.

Back home, anxious parents said college officials kept them informed as the situation unfolded.

When Mary Beth Ramlo got a call from Orange Coast College, she said, “My worst fears had come true.” Her 21-year-old son Kevin, a rock climber in his spare time, lives for a challenge, she said.

“This is like “Survivor,” “Fear Factor” and “Lost” all tied up into one,” said Ramlo, referring to the unscripted television shows.

“My husband and I both agreed that he’s probably having a blast. He went on this for adventure, and he’d be up for just about anything.”

The anxious mother, who spent the weekend repainting his bedroom with a sailing theme to welcome him home, has not yet spoken to her son. But she heard his voice on a one-minute answering machine message:

“It’s an incredible story. I can’t believe it myself. I’ll call you from Panama.”

*

Times staff writers Jeff Gottlieb and Kimi Yoshino contributed to this report.