At the end of their third week adrift in the North Pacific, they were out of water, food and fuel. They had lost their rig and outboard during four storms that swept them farther out to sea. And, they were down to their last flare.
But at last, luck came their way on January 17, when the pilot on a passing cargo ship saw their parachute flare. Interviewed later, Captain Hans-Peter Jessen said, “Just a matter of right place, right time. Very fortunate.
Jessen was piloting a Chinese cargo ship up British Colombia’s inside passage when he thought he saw a block of Styrofoam floating in the water. He thought it looked strange and then, luckily, he saw the flare and realized it was a small boat.
The young Canadian couple on the disabled boat, who had their 100-ound dog and two cats aboard, had set off from Tifino, BC on December 28 and were heading north to Campbell River. This is a wild length of coastline and exposed to the North Pacific’s winter storms.
With the boat disabled and no power, the couple was at the mercy of the powerful currents that run along the inside passage. They had started with 17 flares but by the time they saw the cargo ship steaming past them they were down to their last three and, with no water or food, they were getting desperate. They fired two flares in vain but it was the third and last that got Jessen’s attention.
Jessen and his co-pilot notified the coast guard and then got the Chinese crew to lower one of their lifeboats. They motored to the small disabled boat to reassure the crew that help was on the way.
Before long, the Canadian couple with their dog and two cats, were taken aboard a Coast Guard cutter and transported to shore where they were taken to the hospital. They had been rescued after 20 days adrift, but they would be fine.
