The sailor who was missing at sea for two days before being rescued clinging to the bow of his boat has spoken about his ordeal for the first time, reports Dailymail.
Stuart Bee, 62, told the coastguard he ‘thought “this is it”‘ after he was found 86 miles from shore off Port Canaveral on Florida’s east coast on Sunday morning.
What happened?
His boat had been experiencing mechanical issues before it sank but Bee had been asleep when ‘water gushed in the back and forced him up to the front’.
The crew of a passing 225-foot container ship named Angeles spotted him clinging to the bow of his 32-foot recreational boat, Stingray, which had capsized. The crew rescued him from the water and brought him back to shore.
Bee, who is now making his way to back to shore safely with the crew who found him, added: ”I had been working on the engines, squealing noises and several parts on it. I didn’t see anybody. I thought “this is it”. And then I saw a container vessel in the distance and I don’t have my glasses. I couldn’t see if it was coming to me or not.’
The sailor, who set out at 4 pm on Friday afternoon, described taking off his shirt and waving at his rescue boat before being rescued Sunday morning at 11 am.
He said he had tried to reach equipment to raise a distress signal on his boat but it had sunk with the vessel, adding: ‘Three times I tried to hold my breath and swim down and get it but I couldn’t reach it.’
Bee says he was reluctant to keep moving for fear of losing an air pocket in the cabin that kept the boat afloat.
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Source: Dailymail
