Next message: Bryan Genez: "Re: [world-cruising] Sailor cheats death on the lake"
thanks david, amaxing story... really makws me wonder
were in ICW at the momtent tied up, we leave to
norfolk in am
but well keep what we read in mind
kathleen
s/v legacy
--- David T <> wrote:
>
http://newsfeed.recorder.ca/cgi-bin/LiveIQue.acgi$rec=23138
>
>
>
> * Sailor cheats death on the lake *
>
> By MICHAEL JIGGINS
>
> Staff Writer
>
> Customs officials must have wondered what on
> earth Paul Boucher had
> been up to as he showed them his battered,
> waterlogged and filthy passport
> while returning to Canada on Sunday.
>
> Boucher, 62, and a lifelong resident of
> Brockville, was returning from
> an emotionally difficult day in Clayton, New
> York, retrieving items from his
> beloved sailboat that sank in U.S. waters about
> three miles offshore
> on July 14.
>
> His 32-foot Oday sailboat and everything on it,
> his passport and
> wallet included, had spent a week 60 feet under
> the surface of Lake Ontario.
>
> "Fifteen minutes and your life's dreams are
> turned upside down. But,
> like most people say, 'you're alive and there are
> more boats out there,'"
> said Boucher in an interview Monday at his home
> where he displayed some of
> what was recovered after a salvage crew raised
> the boat on Saturday.
>
> A couple of pairs of silt-covered glasses, a
> Brockville Yacht Club hat
> still soaked and covered in mud, his wallet, some
> rigging and gear, and a
> few antiques his wife, Joan, had bought for the
> boat are among the only
> things he could recover.
>
> The boat, which cost $10,000 to raise, remains in
> the U.S.
>
> Boucher doesn't betray the stoic countenance
> honed during 31 years as
> a reservist with the Brockville Rifles, but it's
> clear how much his sailboat
> meant to him.
>
> A retired lieutenant-colonel, Boucher was the
> sailboat's original
> owner. He bought it 18 years ago, christening her
> the Semper Paratus, Latin
> for Always Prepared - the motto of the Rifles
> regiment.
>
> "I've lived by that motto," said Boucher, who's
> been sailing for 25
> years.
>
> She's a writeoff now and although he's awaiting
> an insurance claim on
> the $100,000 vessel and will probably buy another
> one, Boucher stressed, "It
> won't be the same. I don't know if Semper Paratus
> will go on the next boat.
> That name meant a lot to me and when the boat
> went down, it took the name
> with it."
>
> Boucher had left Cape Vincent around 10:30 a.m.
> on the 14th and was
> sailing alone in a 25-knot wind at about noon
> when he said the boat,
> suddenly, stopped dead in the water.
>
> He went to investigate and saw water coming in on
> the floor boards and
> suddenly the cover over his bilge pump just
> floated away.
>
> Looking down into the pump area he immediately
> knew he was in trouble
> - where the keel bolts had been were three large
> holes that he could look
> through and see the clear water of Lake Ontario
> that was rapidly filling the
> boat.
>
> "The keel bolts pulled right through the
> fibreglass," said Boucher,
> who has no idea why they failed and is positive
> he didn't strike anything in
> the water.
>
> He credits his military training for helping keep
> his composure during
> the harrowing time - at most 15 minutes - in
> which the boat sank beneath
> him.
>
> After giving his mayday call on his now submerged
> radio (there was
> just enough cord to keep the microphone out of
> the water), Boucher said he
> grabbed his life-jacket, a hand-held VHF radio
> and a GPS plotter.
>
> Launching his kayak 'Escape' from the now
> submerged bow, Boucher
> recalled, almost in disbelief, "I turned my head
> for a second and the mast
> fell on the kayak."
>
> The impact knocked a hole in the kayak and sent
> it drifting away from
> the now nearly submerged sailboat in three- to
> five-foot waves.
>
> Before the kayak could float too far away,
> Boucher made his choice: he
> leaped into the lake and reached it after a
> difficult swim struggling with
> his inflatable life-jacket.
>
> Clinging to the side of the water-filled kayak,
> he continued giving
> distress calls on his hand-held radio while
> rolling up and down on the lake
> swells.
>
> "Every half transmission I had water in my
> mouth," recalled Boucher,
> who said he managed to remain calm despite the
> drama unfolding around him
> and spending an hour in chilly Lake Ontario,
> barely in sight of shore.
>
> "I was in a life-threatening situation, but I
> didn't feel it. É It's
> weird, but I didn't feel life-threatened."
>
> The radio, which he purchased for less than $300
> this spring, was a
> godsend.
>
> "I wanted to get rescued because it takes a long
> time to float three
> miles (to shore)," said Boucher.
>
> His distress calls reached a powerboat in the
> area - the only other
> pleasure craft he saw during the choppy day on
> the lake - which arrived only
> shortly before three Coast Guard vessels, two
> from the U.S. and one
> from Canada.
>
> The emergency crews had set out in search of him
> after his initial
> mayday from the sailboat's radio.
>
> "They take a mayday call very seriously," said
> Boucher.
>
> Picked up by the Canadians, Boucher laughed as he
> recalled what the
> crew said to their U.S. counterparts.
>
> "They hollered over to the Americans and said,
> 'It's OK, he's one of
> us and we're keeping him.'"
>
> It was about 4 p.m. when his sister-in-law picked
> up Boucher -
> waterlogged and heartbroken over the loss of his
> boat, but otherwise OK - at
> the Coast Guard station in Portsmouth.
>
> Her first question, of course, was whether he'd
> ever set foot on a
> sailboat again.
>
> "Just give me a boat and I'll go," was Boucher's
> answer.
>
> As for lessons, Boucher referenced the name of
> his sailboat and said
> every sailor has to "be prepared" for the worst.
>
> "I guess I was," he said, although he conceded he
> wasn't wearing his
> life-jacket at the time the vessel started
> sinking.
>
>
=== message truncated ===
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