Reader's Digest

July• 2018 | 55

READER’S DIGEST

the boom a horizontal spar attached
to the mast. Ron landed between her
and the boat and grabbed her with
one hand and a rope attached to the
boat with the other.
he vertical trampoline caught the
wind like a sail. As the boat blew away
it pulled Ron through the water away
from Hana stretching his arms. He
faced a decision that seemed surreal:
he could let go of the boat or Hana.
He let go of the boat. Hana and Ron
both wore life jackets but two-and-
a-half-metre swells crashed on them
threatening to separate or drown
them.
he two wrapped their arms around
each other and Hana tucked her head
against Ron’s chest to ind a pocket of
air free from the piercing rain.
In the chaos Ron thought for a mo-
ment of his daughter. But as he and
Hana rolled under the waves his mind
went blank and grey as the seascape.
Sarah and Jim’s boat had also
bucked them into the water.
he mast snapped sending the sails
loose. “Jim!” Sarah cried out trying to
shift the sails. Finally they found each
other and dragged themselves back
into the wreckage of their boat.

ABOUT 48 KILOMETRES NORTHa
Coast Guard ensign named Phillip
McNamara stood his first-ever shift
as duty officer. As the storm bore
down on Mobile Bay distress calls
came in from sailors in the water
people stranded on sandbars frantic

witnesses on land. Several times he

rang his superior Commander Chris

Cederholm for advice about how to

respond.

“By the third call it was clear some-

thing big was happening” Cederholm

said recently. When he arrived at the

station he triggered a “Mass Rescue

Operation” protocol summoning a

response from air land and sea.

As authorities scrambled to grasp

the scale of the storm hundreds of

sailors on the bay struggled to survive

it. he wind lipped the Luitens’ Razr

slinging the crew – Lennard his fa-

ther 71-year-old Jimmie Brown and

teenage friends Adam Clark and Jacob

Pouncey – into the water.

Brown struggled in a raincoat. Len-

nard swam around the boat search-

ing for his dad whom he found with

Jacob. After 20 minutes or so two-

and-a-half-metre waves threatened to

drown them and Lennard struck out

for the shore to ind help.

Normally a storm’s hard edge blows

past in two or three minutes; this

storm continued for 45 minutes.

A DOZEN COAST GUARDships re-

sponded along with several planes

helicopters and a team who prowled

the coastline on all-terrain vehicles.

People on horses searched the bay’s

clay banks for survivors. At the Coast

Guard outpost on Dauphin Island

Scott Bannon a major with Alabama’s

Marine Resources Division made call

after call to the families and friends of