A cruise ship rescued three Baltimore-area men last week after their sailboat was nearly destroyed by a fierce storm off the North Carolina coast, a spokeswoman for Royal Caribbean Cruises said yesterday.
The three men, identified as Eugene Cole, 62, Steven Bridges, 47, and Nathaniel Pyle, 21, were sailing from Baltimore to Key West, Fla., according to Royal Caribbean Cruises spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez.
The trio hit heavy seas and 110-knot winds a week into their journey, on Feb. 6, about 150 miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras. The storm battered their 39-foot boat, the Tumbleweed, destroying all of the sails and damaging their mast and radio antenna, Martinez said.
They remained on the boat for 11 more days before they were able to send a weak distress call. By then, they had been without food or water for three days, and the boat, which had taken on a lot of water, needed to be bailed out regularly, Martinez said.
The cruise ship, which was about 40 minutes away, heard the call and steered toward the boat. As hundreds of passengers watched above deck, a small boat rescued the men and their luggage and brought them aboard the ship, Martinez said.
"I'm sure they were very hungry, very thirsty and very happy to be alive," Martinez said. "Other than that, they were in good condition."
Royal Caribbean gave the men new clothes, a stateroom to stay in and introduced them to other passengers at a ship event, Martinez said. When the ship docked in Puerto Rico Thursday, the company gave the men airline tickets to the destination of their choice and they picked Key West.
Efforts to reach the men's relatives were not successful. Several Baltimore and Annapolis sailors said they were familiar with the rough conditions that often plague sailors near North Carolina's Outer Banks.
"That's a hurricane force," said Dick Franyo, owner of the Boatyard Bar and grill and an avid sailor. "They're lucky that they're around. But on the other hand, boats like to float. That is probably what saved them."
rona.kobell@baltsun.com