About halfway through the 635-mile Newport to Bermuda Race, in the middle of the night, partway through our Gulf Stream crossing, the boat I was sailing on struck a submerged object and sank. I won’t go into all the details here (you can find an account of the disaster in SAIL’s October 2024 issue, “A Eulogy for Alliance” and on Power & Motoryacht’s podcast, titled “Suddenly Sinking in the Gulf Stream”) but the short version is that I and my eight crewmates abandoned ship into a liferaft and were shortly picked up by a competitor. We then spent more than two days on their boat—16 people crammed into a 40-foot boat—before we made landfall in Bermuda. There were no injuries, and from the collision to the dock, the whole abandonment was conducted with a steadfast professionalism that could have been the difference between losing the boat and losing lives.

This all happened on a monohull, but the situation would’ve been nearly identical in a multihull or a powerboat. In fact, shortly after leaving SAIL, former Editor-in-Chief Peter Nielsen was part of a crew that lost a 46-foot catamaran to the Pacific after his own mid-ocean collision, this time with a whale that holed their port hull. While cats may be a little more difficult to sink via impact, with a second hull that should maintain its integrity even if the first is taking on water, I’d like to share a few takeaways that are useful across the board.

First, the whole thing was much calmer than you’re probably imagining. There was no panic or yelling. Later someone told us that they initially thought we were calling off a mayday, rather than calling for one, because the co-owner sounded so calm over the VHF. We went into disaster mitigation mode, and there was no time to be emotional about it. Credit goes both to the owners who set the tone and directed us with alacrity, and the crew who came to the race having done their homework, knew the boat inside and out, and had their Safety at Sea certifications.

Hosted by US Sailing, the Offshore Safety at Sea certification is required for a percentage of the crew to participate in the race. The course covers everything from MOB best practices, life jacket maintenance, understanding weather, hands-on flare shooting, fire suppression, managing leaks or holes, and much more. Though it’s designed for sailors, the course has a lot of universally applicable skills, and I’d recommend it for anyone planning to do a long passage. It paid dividends in our confidence and calmness in the moment.

Second, we issued our distress calls early. You can always retract a mayday, but once your battery is fried by rising water or an electrical fire spreads, getting help becomes a lot harder. Despite being more than 200 miles offshore, we were lucky to have a boat just 2 miles away from us that was able to cover the distance and come to our aid within the hour.

Third, our crew consisted of sailors with a variety of skill sets, including multiple people who had done work on the boat and knew its systems through and through. From assessing the damage and realizing quickly that we would lose the boat, to getting pumps up and running, technical expertise bought us more time.

And finally, the majority of our crew had already sailed over a thousand miles together, and we were intimately aware of each other’s abilities. When it comes to the unexpected, there’s only so much you can do to prepare, but having trust in each other and a full understanding of each other’s capabilities helped us make confident decisions on the fly. Always know your crew and understand what help they can offer and what help they will need in an emergency.

I know safety and preparedness isn’t as fun as planning what toys to bring or rallying with friends and family, but take it from me, you will never regret the time you spent learning to be a responsible boater.

— Lydia Mullan

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MHP&S Winter 2025