It was Sunday November 10th 2002 and we were in our last day of our 1200 mile sail from Fiji to New Zealand. At 10P.M. local time we were in huge seas with 30 to 35 knots of  wind and 18 ft waves. Our night had not been fun but it was "doable". We had been doing this type of shit weather now for days. We were tired, but knew that the end was tomorrow with less than 60 miles to go.

Suddenly we heard a mayday!!! The sailing vessel "Mika" had been hit by a ship and was going down. He just had time to give his position to the coast guard and get into his life raft. 

At the time we thought it could be "Mika" a 28' boat with single hander Alf aboard (We were right). The coast guard asked for all boats in the area to report there position, and when we did they asked us to proceed to the location of the sinking. We turned the boat around, but it was 16 miles to the site with huge wind and waves on the nose. At 1.5 knots it was going to take us till morning to get there. We radioed the coast guard & they had us "Hove to" while the full scale rescue was conducted. 

Six additional vessels responded to the call and eventually Alf was picked up by a Russian container ship. He had been in the sub 60F water for almost 3 hours and was about to expire. 

We were thanked for our help and released from coast guard control after Alf was aboard the Russian ship. WE continued on our way arriving the next afternoon in New Zealand.

Five days later in Opua Marine Alf arrived to stay on a Swedish boat... he had lost everything, and had no insurance. Alf was down below on his boat checking his position when he was hit by the ship. All he saw was a steel wall when he came top side. He quickly realized he was taking on water, and launched his life raft.

He went below to give his position the the coast guard. The water was up to his knees. By the time they responded and conformed his position which was seconds the water was up to his waist. He could not pull the life raft to his boat so he had to jump in and swim for it. He made it to the raft & cut his tether rope just as his boat sunk.

In the distance he saw the light of a ship and shot up a flare. He sent up a few more flares without success and decided to light a hand held flare. With all the movement and huge seas he fell on the canopy of the life raft, the flare falling into the bottom of the raft.

The flare was still burning when he grabbed it with his bare hand sustaining a bad burn, The raft was now leaking with a hole in it and there was as much water inside as outside. He clung on for his life for hours until the Russians arrived. 

They eventually hoisted him aboard, gave him a hot shower, a vodka rub down, treated his burn, and gave him a couple of shots.

He was luck to be alive and as of this story the ship that hit him steamed off not responding to calls on VHF or SSB. Officials are investigating and believe they know which ship it was....