The Story of Dougal Robinson and His Family
Dougal Robinson planned a sailing trip around the world. His family including his wife Lyn, oldest son Douglas, 12 year old twins Sandy and Neil along with a friend Robin had traveled for 18 months. On June 15, 1972 they were 300 km from the Galapagos Islands when disaster struck.
Dougal had gone below deck to study maps and plan the next part of their trip. All of a sudden he felt a bang and heard a loud noise. Immediately Dougal saw a large hole in the side of his sailboat. The ocean was pouring in quickly. Dougal yelled for his family to get off the boat.
Dougal was able to grab only a knife before heading up on deck. Dougal cut the dinghy off and got the raft out. Lyn grabbed things to hold water. They jumped on the raft just in time to watch the sailboat sink.
Douglas and Sandy told Dougal that had seen close to 20 killer whales. Three had hit the boat. Dougal looked at the supplies they had. The raft had enough food for about 10 days, but very little water. They also had a few supplies including a sail, oars, fishing line and hooks, flares, and a first aid kit.
With so little water Dougal decided to sail towards Central America. This way they would reach the Doldrums where it rained often. Unfortunately Central America was 1,600 km away.
Almost immediately the raft began losing air. Dougal had a plan. He put the sail up on the dinghy. He was going to use the dinghy to pull the raft, if only the raft would hold up. After a week the raft had to be blown up every 10 minutes.
Finally on June 22 it rained. The Robinsons were able to quench their thirst for the first time in days. A ship passed the raft that day as well. It was only 5 km away. Unfortunately the ship did not see the flares and sailed away. However something good did happen of this day. A turtle bumped against the raft. After three hours of hard work the turtle was ready to eat.
Three days later Lyn threw out the remains of the turtle. Sharks came. Luckily they only wanted the turtle remains and left the raft alone.
Four days later they were able to catch a second turtle. With so little to drink Lyn suggested that her family drink the turtle blood. Everyone liked it. After that the Robinsons always drank the blood of the turtles they caught.
A second rain came on day 15. It rained for two days. Dougal knew that they had reached the Doldrums. The raft was in bad shape by then. That is why when the dinghy broke loose that afternoon everyone was in a panic. Dougal dived into the ocean after it. He did not even notice the sharks that were nearby. It was just two days later that the raft had so many leaks that the family had to move into the dinghy.
The dinghy was not meant to hold 6 people. It sank lower in the water after each person got in. Sharks were almost eye level with the top of the dinghy. This made a very scary ride for everyone.
On day 18 a storm came. All night the Robinsons had to battle the storm. After this each day seemed just like the day before. With so little to eat and drink the Robinsons became weak. Two weeks later they finally had another rain.
On day 38 Dougal saw a ship. Dougal lit a flare. The ship picked them up and helped them to the deck. Everyone was so weak that standing was impossible. After eating the Robinsons took baths and put on clean clothes. If they had not been rescued by the ship they would have had to go another 15 days before reaching Central America.