They set off in mid-May and by June 1 1972, the family and their plus one had reached the Galapagos Islands, where they immersed themselves in the local flora and fauna which had so fascinated Charles Darwin during his own visit to the remote volcanic archipelago 137 years earlier.The visit would prove to be their last moments on land for nearly six weeks.‘Whales! Whales!’The boat “was in perfect working order” as they set off from the Galapagos on June 13 1972, Sandy says. But within two days disaster struck when a trio of orcas delivered a series of blows to the Lucette.In what would prove to be a fortunate twist of fate, the attack came just moments after Dougal had abandoned an unsuccessful fishing attempt. A stickler for keeping a tight ship, their father was always telling the boys to make sure they stowed the fishing line away. But on this occasion, they hadn’t, leaving it lying out onboard instead.“It was 9.55am and I had just been given a cup of coffee. Then suddenly there was an almighty crash and the cup of coffee was airborne,” says Sandy. “Douglas was screaming, ‘Whales! Whales!’”Water began flooding into the Lucette, forcing Dougal to try to plug one of several holes created by the orcas with a pillow. But realising he was fighting a losing battle, he gave the command to abandon ship and freed the inflatable life raft and the Ednamair, which were tied together. Within little more than a minute, the family and Robin had gathered all they could in their arms and leapt into the ocean.“Mum gave me a bag of red onions. I stepped off the boat and rolled onto my back clutching them,” says Sandy.Panicked, the group scrambled their way to the life raft one by one. All of them were barefoot, and dressed in shorts and T-shirts. As they regrouped, they picked through the supplies they had managed to scoop up before abandoning the Lucette – among them Lyn’s sewing kit, the bag of onions, 10 oranges, six lemons and the fishing line.The 8ft by 6ft life raft was equipped with a survival pack including flares and a knife, as well as rations amounting to a day’s worth of food and water for 10 people.“I saw the top of the Lucette’s mast disappearing under the water,” says Sandy. “Neil then started crying and Mum was comforting him. He said: ‘I’m not crying because we’re in a life raft, I’m crying because we have lost the Lucette.’”Heading for the doldrumsBefore the family began their fight for survival, they bickered. There was no help on the horizon, they had no map, no compass and nobody was aware of their situation.“Blame was being levelled. Mum told Dad he had put us at risk. Douglas told them both to shut up, and said that we had to get on with what we needed to do day to day,” says Sandy.Sparked into action, Dougal vowed to his family that he would make sure they made it back to land alive. He hatched a plan to sail north, towards an area known by sailors as the doldrums – a belt around the Earth near the equator, where the northeast and southeast trade winds meet and rainstorms are almost constant. “Dad knew that going north we would hit the doldrums. That was our point of call for collecting water to drink,” says Sandy.
How I survived for 38 days adrift in the Pacific Ocean
