It seems quite the fish tale

Ahoy.

Have you heard about Richard Van Pham’s ordeal after he set sail

from Long Beach for Catalina Island in late May or early June? Well,

Pham drifted all the way to Costa Rica where, on Sept. 17, the naval

frigate McClusky rescued him off his dismasted 26-foot sailboat.

According to Pham, he was asleep after he set sail for Catalina,

and when he awoke that morning, a storm had kicked up and snapped his

mast, leaving him drifting. He was now at the mercy of the wind and

current since his engine did not work. His radio was also not

working, so he couldn’t call for assistance. Additionally, he did not

see any other vessels to signal for help, but I wonder if he had a

flare kit aboard. He drifted for more than 3 1/2 months, surviving

by catching rain water to drink, eating fish, sea turtles and sea

gulls. Why sea gulls? Yuck.

Call me a skeptic, but I have a very difficult time believing his

story. How come he does not know the day he left Long Beach? However,

if his story is completely true, then I will sail a sabot to

Catalina.

First, I am very troubled as to why he is down below asleep during

the short sail from Long Beach to Catalina, which usually takes about

five hours. Terrible seamanship and very dangerous sleeping when he

should be standing watch to avoid other boats, ships, oil platforms

and the island. Strange as he did not have any electronics such as

GPS for him to go asleep and then wake up to know his position.

The second troubling notion is that he did not wake up during the

storm from the crashing sounds of the mast with the sails and rigging

hitting the fiberglass hull, which had to make a horrendous echo

through the 26-footer. The boat, now foundering in the seas, would

have turned, rocking in the swell troughs, and the boat’s speed would

have slowed considerably with the sails dragging in the water.

With the power of the Internet, I looked up the weather history of

a few of NOAA’s sites for May and June, and I do not see any record

of a storm, plus the highest wind gusts are below 20 mph. I would be

very interested in seeing a swell model from that time period,

matching his accounts. This is a perfect situation to determine if

this voyage is possible by using the weather and sea historic data

records for the past four months.

Those of you who boat and fish in the San Pedro Channel know that

when you float in the channel, the winds and current will push your

boat back to the mainland, and it is common to be pushed south to the

Camp Pendleton area. What really makes me a skeptic is that for 3

1/2 months drifting at sea no other boater passed by to notice a

dismasted sailboat?

TIP OF THE WEEK

All boaters should pick up a free absorbent bilge pad at the

Newport Landing Fuel Dock, Shell Station -- (949) 673-7878 -- in

Newport Harbor. The program is expanding from Dana Point to Newport

Harbor. Steve Kim, a hazardous waste specialist with the county of

Orange said, “Boaters just need to go to the fuel dock and pick up

free new pads or return any used pads.”

“The infrastructure is in place; now it’s just a matter of getting

the word out to boaters and their mechanics about the program,” said

Pearl Bolter, supervising hazardous waste specialist for the county

of Orange Environmental Health Division. “We anticipate distributing

thousands of absorbent pads during the next year -- ads that will

certainly help keep the harbor and our ocean waters clean.”

Boaters use the absorbent pads to soak up petroleum products in

the bilge and the pads are very efficient because they do not absorb

water.

The Orange County’s Health Care Agency, with the Orange County

Sheriff’s Harbor Patrol and the City of Newport Beach Marine

Resources Department, partnered with the California Integrated Waste

Management Board to fund the program.

Safe voyages.

* MIKE WHITEHEAD is the Pilot’s boating and harbor columnist.

Send him your harbor and marine-related thoughts and story

suggestions via e-mail to [email protected] or go to

BoathouseTV.com.