Albatross: The True Story Of A Womans Survival At Sea

Albatross: The True Story Of A Womans Survival At Sea

Product Description A harrowing true tale of shipwreck and survival recounts the experiences of five people adrift in a dinghy and surrounded by sharks, as one by one they begin to die while waiting to be rescued. 35,000 first printing. National ad/promo. Tour. From Publishers Weekly It was an ill-assorted crew that set out in October, 1982, to deliver a 58-foot yacht, Trashman , to Florida. John, the captain, his friend Meg and the author first sailed from Maine to Annapolis, where they picked up two more crew members, Brad and Mark. Sailing without charts, they encountered gale winds and high seas off the North Carolina coast on the second day out. A freak wave crashed through the cabin windows, and Trashman sank in minutes, leaving the crew adrift in a rubber dinghy without food and water, each one hanging onto his or her own survival. Meg had been severely injured in a fall; she developed blood poisoning and died. The second day in the dinghy, John and Mark, both delirious, went overboard. Debbie and Brad managed to hang on to their belief that they would be rescued. Four days after the sinking, they were picked up by a Russian freighter and brought to shore at Morehead City, N.C. This is a harrowing story of endurance and survival. Author tour. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal In 1982, experienced sailor Kiley, then 24, agreed to crew a sailboat from Maine to Florida. After a fierce storm sank the boat off the coast of North Carolina, the crew of five struggled onto an ill-equipped rubber dinghy to face hunger, cold, thirst, sharks, festering sores, and hostile relations with each other. Telling her story is Kileys way of overcoming the horrible memories of her ordeal. The survival tale is told so vividly that the reader nearly feels the sharks bumping the bottom of the dinghy, and shares in the crews hallucinations as their fear and suffering mount. However, the authors overall insights are not especially perceptive. Public libraries should consider purchasing where there is an interest in sailing. Kathy Ruffle, Coll. of New Caledonia Lib., Prince George, B.C. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist A decade after she was fished from the Atlantic Ocean by sailors of a Russian freighter, Kiley realized that she had to face up to the terrors she had experienced or they would haunt her forever. This book is her act of facing up. It is a remarkable story beginning with an unremarkable voyage--a routine delivery of a yacht from Maine to its owner in Florida. Kiley had a great deal of boating experience before this voyage, and notes throughout the inadequacies of her fellow sailors. Her knowledge also lends even greater terror to her precise descriptions of the yachts final moments. While a storm tore the yacht to pieces, the captain sat in the engine room with a beer, purportedly working on the engine. All five crew members made it into the dinghy, but only two survived the entire five days at sea. Their bickering, anguish, and terror are exhaustively rendered. Denise Perry Donavin From Kirkus Reviews The knockout story of Deborah Kileys five days and nights on a raft in heavy seas during a storm. Aided by journalist Noonan, she spins a harrowing tale. In 1982, 24-year-old Kiley, who had already sailed the Whitbred and other famous sailboat endurance races, fell in with John Lippoth, captain of the Trashman, a heavy-handling, 58-foot yacht he was sailing from Maine to Florida. The Trashman set sail with Debbie and John; his girlfriend Meg Mooney; tall, muscular Brad Cavanaugh and his buddy Mark Adams, a Brit with pale blue malamute eyes and a stupefyingly evil tongue. Somewhere off North Carolina they hit 40-foot seas; 80-knot winds shredded the sails and the engine burned out. The description of this part of the storm is hair-raising, with the crew frantically trying to handle the wheel and the character of e