Ship Wreck Short Version

In July, Finance Monkey, a regular sailor, was helping deliver a boat from Hawaii to San Francisco. After four sun-bathing days of sailing in calm seas, the crew noticed a pod of what turned out to be sperm whales about a mile away from them and took their cameras out. But when they heard a loud BANG and felt the boat shake, they were surprised as the skipper had warned Finance about properly securing her shoe collection. They soon realized that the boat had been hit by a descendant of Moby Dick. The 40 to 80-ton whale (the crew being inexperienced in the sexing of large marine mammals, especially at 7am and before coffee, greater precision wasn't possible) rammed the 40-foot yacht, opening a large hole in the ship's hull. For non-sailing readers, this is generally considered a bad thing.\n\n

So what did\nthe intrepid crew do? They tried to stuff the hole with sails and sail bags,\npump out and bail water for a half hour but courageously decided to abandon\nship after the rapidly rising water reached knee (or waist for female VPs)\nlevel and ruined the 5 kgs of Snickers kept for emergencies. Meanwhile, the\nskipper managed to fit in a most dramatic Hollywood\nsequence "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday – this is yacht XL, etc…" which unfortunately no one picked up. It was\nreally well put.

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The Coast\nGuard was alerted by the most sophisticated devices such as satellite phone, a\nyellow emergency position indicating radio beacon, an ICOM hand-held radio\ncharged at 60% and a hand-held Global Positioning System device (your VP works\nat Google). They immediately sent a\nplane and organized a model rescue operation resulting in the safe retrieval of\nthe crew after only a day of drifting around on a life raft. After a few\nhours on a container ship, the inquisitive crew found out that it was bound for\nJapan.\nFor Americans and other geographically-challenged readers, this is not close to\nSan Francisco.\nFortunately, a passing fishing vessel returning to Hawaii, accepted the by-now famous crew on\nboard. A few days later, the Fantastic Four made it safely back to Honolulu with 152\npictures of a sinking ship and whale backs.

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The reason why\nthe whale attacked the boat remains a mystery. However, marine biologists\nbelieve that it was a French whale practicing head butting on an Italian boat.

",1] ); // in the ship's hull. For non-sailing readers, this is generally considered a bad thing.

So what did the intrepid crew do? They tried to stuff the hole with sails and sail bags, pump out and bail water for a half hour but courageously decided to abandon ship after the rapidly rising water reached knee level, the bow disappeared under 3ft of water and salt water ruined the 5 kgs of Snickers kept for emergencies. Meanwhile, the skipper managed to fit in a most dramatic Hollywood sequence "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday – this is yacht So and So, etc…" which unfortunately no one picked up. It was really well put.

The Coast Guard was alerted by the most sophisticated devices such as satellite phone, a yellow emergency position indicating radio beacon, an ICOM hand-held radio charged at 60% and a hand-held Global Positioning System device. They immediately sent a plane and organized a model rescue operation resulting in the safe retrieval of the crew after only a day of drifting around on a life raft. After a few hours on a container ship, the inquisitive crew found out that it was bound for Japan. For Americans and other geographically-challenged readers, this is not close to San Francisco. Fortunately, a passing fishing vessel returning to Hawaii, accepted the by-now famous crew on board. A few days later, the Fantastic Four made it safely back to Honolulu with 152 pictures of a sinking ship and whale backs.

The reason why the whale attacked the boat remains a mystery. However, marine biologists believe that it was a French whale practicing head butting on an Italian boat.