1982. October. Deborah Scaling Kiley set sail with four others in a routine journey to Florida. Deborah Scaling Kiley and the retinue departed from Maine on a cruising sailboat. The boat was named Trashman and it was owned by a Texas man who had made a killing in garbage. The Texas was not sailing with this group.
Kiley was not a rookie and this trip was not her first time. In fact she quite experienced as an ocean-going sailor. She had been in couple of races. I cannot verify but she even participated in prestigious English races.
In spite of being such accomplished, there was nothing that prepared this group for what was going to happen while sailing on Trashman.
Unknown to the group, a dangerous storm was gathering. Deborah Scaling Kiley and the group were being led by a captain who was more interested in drinking than the necessary preparedness for sailing, along with his live-in girlfriend (who hated boats), and a crew member by the name of Mark who was nuts.
Some days after they left from Narragansett Bay, the group ran into a nasty storm and their boat Trashman sank. Five of the group members along with Deborah Scaling Kiley ended up on a Zodiac.
Their adventurous week or so on the tiny dingy make up the bulk of the show Untamed Seas. This journey is enough to make most of us give up setting foot in an oceangoing boat forever, for the rest of our lives.
The group was adrift from end of October until begining of November, and in that period of time, John the Captain and crewmember Mark partook seawater. Needless to say they went bananas and disappeared overboard (both saying something like they were heading out to the nearest 7-11 for cigarettes).
The captain’s girl friend died from the wounds she has suffered while trying to save herself while the boat went down during the storm.
From then on it was only Brad and Deborah, swatting the sharks and lying in their own waste waters (it kept them warm) or covered with sargasso seaweed (it protected them from the cold, but the tiny crabs nipped them mercilessly.)
Quite an amazing story there so don’t forget to check it out.
