Rescue of two Sailors at night from a Reef in Culebra

Sometimes things don't go that well and all matters how good you are prepaired to go offshore.
Yesterday we arrived at Culebra Bay and anchored off Cayo Pirata. The approach was through a narrow canal through a dangerous reef. Buoys clearly signaled the position of the reef edge and in daylight, the passage even in rough seas was still easy to recognize. After a wonderful sailing day we rested in the cockpit and prepared ourselves for bad weather which was forecasted for the night. Shortly after 7 pm, we noticed a sailboat that had raised anchor and disappeared into the dark headig in direction of the Reef. We were surprised that somebody wanted to set sail on such a weather forecast and assumed that he probably just wanted to switch to the lee of the island to find better protection. So we didn't care and forgot about.

At 8:12 pm, we heard a distress call on VHF: "Mayday - Mayday - Mayday! We ran onto the reef... Can anyone hear me? This is sv Galadria - Mayday, we're sitting on the ground and can not get away anymore.. anyone? "

Shocked, with big eyes we looked at each other. The weather had worsened and the sea had increased significantly. We did not know where the call for help came from and it was obviews that with Bamba Maru, we would not even try to sail through the reef under these conditions to get someone out. That was simply impossible. Scared we looked at each other and waited helplessly as it continued. The emergency call was not answered and again the voice came from the radio: "Mayday - Mayday - Mayday, we are sitting on the reef and can not get away, we need help, does anyone hear me?" suddenly a scratchy voice answered: "Vessel in distress, this is Coast Guard Station San Juan: What is your position? and what's the nature of distress?"... There was no answer. After some attempts, we realized that they simply could not hear each other - we did hear both. I throw in a "Break - Break - Bamba Maru" and offered my help as a relay. Now we could communicate with both parties.

There were two people on board. Both clearly under shock and unable to share their exact position with us. They had no liferaft on board, no signal devices and no dinghy. Now they sat firmly on the reef at the windward side and were helplessly exposed to the approaching breakers. The boat was full of water and it could sink at anytime. To leave the boat and swimm trough the Reef in this conditions would probably not have been a good idea and chances for survival at pretty much zero.

The U.S. Coastguard appeared on the sky with an airplane and began to search the area. After a short while the pilot had found the boat and started to circle it. Every now and then, the beam of a flashlight appeared far out somewhere and we could guess where they probably could be... and that was not a good place at this time. The Coastguard had to realize that they could not do a lot from the plane. To drop a liferaft was possible, but useless for the boaters that would have to hop in the waves in order to catch it. So that was a no-brainer. The plane stayed close but without any other idea but to ask if anybody is around that could offer assistance. Silence - there was nobody. Wind and seas had deteriorated further and for us there seemd only one way to go if this fellas wanna survive the night. We had to go out with our dinghy and try to get them off the ship before it sinks.

Joanna and I grabbed our emergency equipment, jumped into the dinghy and made our way to the reef. One crew member stayed aboard to talk to the Coastguard and we kept contact to Bamba Maru with our handsets which the Coastguard could not hear. It was a rough ride, 2 miles through breaking waves in pitch black darkness, but we could see the ray of a flashlight.

We arrived just the day before and did not really know the reef. In the dark we could not see how shallow it was already. We tried to read the waves and looked for a safe course through the reef to get to the shipwrecked. The difficult thing, however, was to get close enough to the ship to rescue the people. We tried the leeward side with the engine halfway up. The mast almost hit us like a whip over and over again and we had to start the approach a couple of times. Then we got hold on one of the shrouds and picked the guys up. The return trip was a wet and bouncy journey, we had to steer deeper into the waves to gain distance to the rocks.

Around 10pm we all arrived safely on Bamba Maru and reported to the Coastguard that all persons were safe. No one was injured, but the boat is destroyed and the reef did not do well either. It was the boat that had previously left the bay. On the way through the reef their machine had failed and an attempt to sail the ship failed failed. The skipper wanted to sail with his friend from Culebra to Florida and had not prepared properly enough. Finally, he was a lucky dude in bad luck. If he had not run onto the reef, then he would have sailed just a few days later in a tropical storm or hurricane. We will try to assist him to get the boat off the Reef in the next days, but for now - everyone is safe.