 | | Joseph Savana
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| Second of two parts.
As the crew of the Cynthia Woods floated in the open Gulf of Mexico, they talked and tried to stay positive. The five of them drifted where the wind and the waves took them, careful not to expend energy fighting the powerful currents.
The crew had left Galveston only a half-day before, participating in the Regata de Amigos sailboat race to Veracruz, Mexico. Just 10 hours into the race, their keel snapped, leaving the sailboat destabilized and rapidly taking on water.
Within seconds, the boat had capsized, throwing five of the six crewmembers into the Gulf. One crewman didn't make it.
The water temperature was 80 degrees. “Nothing too dangerous,” said Joseph Savana, an Eagle Scout from Pecan Grove. “It would be like 48 hours until hypothermia kicked in. We were fine.”
As the day wore on, the crew saw more jets, but the waterlogged sailors were still not spotted.
“After that, we started seeing ships from really far away,” Savana recalled. They also saw a helicopter - but once again they were not spotted against the background of the expansive Gulf.
“We always had a plan B, which was heading over to an oil platform if we couldn't get out of the water,” he said.
Moment of fear
The only moment when Savana became scared was when Steven Conway advised him and the rest of the crew that a man-of-war was floating nearby.
“I saw it - I wasn't too happy,” Savana said. “Because I know what man-of-wars are, and they're super dangerous.”
Man-of-wars drift the ocean's currents with venom-laden tentacles up to 30-feet long, and this one was coming in the crew's direction - but the bobbing survivors were able to avoid the menace.
The crew also encountered some baby sharks, and some of them targeted Savana's shoes when they saw the laces, which they must have mistaken for worms.
“After I was kicking awhile, my shoes just popped right off,” he said.
The crew saw a larger shark later, but it just swam right by.
Toward nightfall, the decision was made to swim to an oil rig platform, but the wind and currents shifted on the sailors, preventing them from getting to their destination. Instead they swam toward a helicopter landing platform, about four miles away, which was easier to get to because they were drifting that way with the current and the wind.
Spotted by a chopper
When the crew was about 300 yards away from the landing pad, the sailors heard, and then saw, a helicopter overhead. The helicopter found the crew with its night vision equipment, aided by the beam of a waterproof flashlight one of the sailors had attached to his life vest.
The five crew members had been taking turns with the four lifejackets, with at least two men holding the unbuoyed swimmer at all times. When the Coast Guard helicopter began taking the crew members aboard, Savana - who was taking his turn without a life vest - went first.
Overcome with exhaustion, Savana slept on the chopper during the flight back to shore.
“I don't know how long it was,” he said. “All I knew was it was a smooth ride.”
The sailors were treated in an ambulance, then taken to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston to be checked out. Like the others, Savana had suffered a bad sunburn, blisters on his tongue and badly chapped lips.
The rescued survivors later learned their crew mate, Roger Stone, 53, had died. The crew had wondered about his fate as they floated in the Gulf water.
‘Deep down, we realized'
“Deep down inside, we realized he probably died,” Savana said, quickly adding that they could also see the possibility of him surviving. “We just tried to stay positive the whole time.”
Savana has fond memories of Stone, pointing out that he was knowledgeable about sailing. Stone's actions on the boat are being credited for saving the lives of two of the sailors.
“I didn't really sail with him a lot, but the times I did, I really enjoyed his company,” he said.
Savana planned to attend Stone's funeral Thursday. He also plans to get together with the rest of the crew this summer.
Savana's experiences won't scare him away from the water. In the future, he plans to take additional precautions, such as a different type of life jacket, and ensure the boat has certain safety features, including a different kind of keel.
Savana had sailed on smaller boats before, but he didn't start sailing in the bigger craft until he got to college last year.
Despite his watery ordeal, Savana said he plans to spend his birthday in the family's backyard swimming pool.
A marine biology major at Texas A&M University-Galveston, Savana said he would like to explore cave diving as a career. He wants a job in which he doesn't have to sit behind a desk all day.
And as for his watery adventure, it's time to put it behind him and get back to normal life. He'll soon be starting his summer job with All-Tex Networking Solutions in Rosenberg.
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