Videos: Author On Deadly Bermuda Voyage
Surviving a life-threatening situation does not have to drastically change a person’s life as a Massachusetts author discovered interviewing survivors of an ill-fated voyage from Connecticut to Bermuda for his bestseller “Overboard!”
On May 16 author Michael J. Tougias will give a slide lecture at the Holmes Library in Halifax on the doomed voyage of the yacht “Almeisan” to Bermuda which he chronicles in “Overboard!: A True Bluewater Odyssey of Disaster and Survival.’’
“You would think their lives would be changed in a great way, but that’s not the case,’’ Mr. Tougias said of survivors who were plucked from often violent, churning seas after their boats capsized. “It’s the little things they’re thankful for, the little achievements.’’
Michael Tougias’ “Overboard! A True Blue-Water Odyssey of Disaster and Survival,” was published by Simon and Schuster in 2010.
Captain Tom Tighe, first mate Lochlin Reidy and three novice crewmembers –Chris Ferrer, Ron Burd and Kathy Gilcrest — set sail aboard the 45-foot “Almeisan” from Connecticut to Bermuda in May 2005. Captain Tighe had made the trip 48 times before.
A few days into the voyage, their boat was battered with massive 30-foot waves in a severe storm. A huge wave hurled the Captain and First Mate overboard.
Mr. Tougias’ story details the Captain’s and First Mate’s efforts to survive in the water and the simultaneous story of the three novice crew members attempting to survive aboard the damaged sailboat in the fierce storm.
After 10 hours of constantly fighting the seas the Captain died, while the First Mate fought the stormy seas for another 16 hours until a US Coast Guard plane spotted the light on his life vest.
The Coast Guard eventually saved the trio of survivors in a rescue so intense and complex, Mr. Tougias said, it was used as the Coast Guard’s search-and-rescue case of the year.
Mr. Tougias is also the author of 19 other books, including three other nonfiction sailing disaster books: “Ten Hours Until Dawn: The True Story of Heroism and Tragedy Aboard the Can Do”, “Fatal Forecast: An Incredible True Tale of Disaster and Survival at Sea” and “The Finest Hours: The True Story of the Coast Guard’s Most Daring Rescue.”
Speaking to a Boston newspaper recently, he said: “I enjoy doing these lecture programmes because I like to transport the audience into the heart of the storm so they can ask themselves ‘What would I have done’?”
