John Gilbert was hoping Friday would be a day to remember.
It turned out to be unforgettable — but hardly for the reasons the sailor had planned.
Gilbert of Auburn had become more interested in sailing over the last year. Using the online marketplace Craigslist, he purchased a 30-foot sailboat from a man in Quincy, Massachusetts, and had gone there to pick it up and sail it up the coast and home Friday morning.
Instead, he and his captain and fellow Mainer, Bryan Bonin, landed in Gloucester, Massachusetts, taken safely off the vessel by a U.S. Coast Guard crew and brought ashore after their boat — christened the North Star — saw its mast come crashing down some four miles outside of Gloucester Harbor, disabling the vessel.
“We sailed right at first light, and we were going to go up to Kittery or Portsmouth and then up to Portland on Saturday to a [mooring] slip I got,” Gilbert said in a phone interview Monday. “We were sailing along, we had a little bit of wind — gusting up to 25 knots or so — and we were getting good speed. Then we just heard a loud bang.”
The stay that secures the mast to the stern had broken, Gilbert said, and despite his and Bonin’s efforts, the mast itself became destabilized, eventually crashing down into the water.
“I was worried about that mast coming right off, swinging around and killing us,” Gilbert said. “I was afraid it could throw us off the boat. I thought, ‘Hey, I’ve got a wife and young son, I love them’ — I thought, ‘Wow, this could be it.’”
Gilbert sought protection in the cabin, but he and Bonin found another problem: The ropes had wrapped around the propeller, leaving the vessel adrift.
U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Andrew Barresi said a 911 call was relayed at about 11 a.m. Friday to the Sector Boston Command Center, and a 47-foot motorized lifeboat was sent to get the two men.
“[The boat] was demasted; they had a fouled propeller — it was completely disabled,” said Barresi, adding that Coast Guard crew succeeded in taking the two men safely off the North Star and onto the lifeboat and then headed for Station Gloucester.
There, Gilbert confronted another problem. While the Coast Guard brought him and Bonin to shore, it is not charged with towing in recreational craft; it would be up to him to call a marine towing company to have the North Star brought to shore.
But Gilbert said the Coast Guard and Gloucester assistant harbormaster Chad Johnson were immensely helpful in steering him to a marine towing service that came from Beverly, Massachusetts, to bring the boat in. And then Johnson went a few extra miles — literally — to get Gilbert and Bonin safely home.
Johnson had plans — and tickets — to go to Portland Friday night for a college hockey game between Maine and Michigan State, and he drove Gilbert and Bonin to South Portland, where they had left their cars to head for Quincy.
“I asked him how he was going to get home,” Johnson said of Gilbert. “He said they were going to maybe take a cab to Boston, then maybe take an [Amtrak] train back up. I said, ‘Look, I’m going to Portland, it you don’t mind hanging around a little bit until I’m clear here, you’re welcome to come with me.’”
They did.
Gilbert returned to Gloucester Sunday to prep the North Star for land transport and take it home for repairs. Despite the misadventure, he said he has no qualms about buying the boat — which is insured, he said — and returning it to sea when it’s fixed.
“At first, I was really depressed. I think I even asked the Coast Guard if they would just take it out and sink if for me,” said Gilbert, who harbors no complaints about the vessel or the seller. “But the more I thought of it, I thought, I really do love sailing, and I’m not going to give it up and give the boat up because of this. I’m not going to quit — I can’t.”
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