Close Call at Sea for College Crew

Eight men slept on the 66-foot sailing boat, 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 program, swarmed over the vessel for the next 30 minutes, trying to figure out what had gone wrong and whether their lives were in immediate peril.

“I thought the mast had broken . . . and that it was going down,” Robert Pelletier, a student sailor on board, said Wednesday via ship-to-shore telephone from aboard the German cargo ship Seurat. “For about a 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 80-foot main mast, had collapsed, causing the mast to drop a foot down into the vessel. And though the emergency subsided into a calm and organized effort to save the Bonaire, ultimately the crew was forced to abandon the $500,000 ketch at sea, hitching rides on two commercial ships, including the Seurat, headed for 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 aboard the Seurat are four other Orange Coast College students and one of the Bonaire’s two first mates, all from Orange County.

The crew was bringing the Bonaire home to Newport Beach from Hawaii when the mast dropped, 800 miles and two weeks into their voyage. The boat, which belongs to 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.

“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 around the mast step. They also quickly contacted the U.S. Coast Guard. And the captain kept everyone aboard 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 wasn’t over at that point, Pelletier said. The mast still could have dropped further, perhaps punching a hole through the hull; or it could have fallen over.

“Every six to eight hours we had to tighten up the rigging” holding the mast, he said.

Still, there was little immediate peril, Pelletier said. Lifeboats were made ready and the Coast Guard knew their location. And the temperamental Pacific had favored them with calm seas and balmy weather.

That proved fortunate, since 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 tug lacked a launch to pick them up.

Finally, the Seurat picked up five students and one of the first mates five 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 aboard in an attempt to rally the Bonaire and sail it safely to port. But three days later, they gave up the effort and were picked up by a Japanese automobile transport ship, which is expected to arrive in Panama on Monday.

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

Margaret Gratton, president of Orange Coast College, said she is proud of how the crew handled its misfortune.

“In may ways, it demonstrated the competency of the program,” she said.

Pelletier agreed.

“An event like this can happen anywhere at any time,” he said. “I have no ill feelings about sailing or the crew. Everyone did the best they could.”

Times staff writer Jeff Gottlieb contributed to this report.