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Pune Captain Rescues Castaway
Pune Newsline - February 26th 2005
DRIFTING IN THE PACIFIC FOR A MONTH, TONI SIN SURVIVED ON OLIVE OIL ...UNTIL HE WAS SAVED BY VILAS PIMPALKHARE AND THE CREW OF CLEMENTINE
For over a month Toni Sin was a castaway. Drifting deep in the Pacific, with his sail broken, food supplies over and radio dead, he had lost all hope. But on Tuesday (February 22), all that changed. Thanks to Captain Vilas Pimpalkhare, whose wife spotted a distant dot ''that looked like a boat'', the American journalist is now recuperating on board cargo vessel Clementine.
Vilas's wife, Smita, is naturally excited. ''It was 9 am on February 22. After breakfast, I happened to be sitting around, when I saw something like a boat at a distance. We ran on the bridge to find it was indeed a small boat,'' she says via email.
Sin's yatch was about a mile away. As Clementine reached close, ''we saw the boat's mast broken... we blew short horns and then we saw him, signalling for help.''
Vilas and the crew acted quickly. The boat was first tied to the ship and then two seamen went down to help. ''When Sin was lifted to our ship, he was half dead. He had no strength,'' writes Smita.
Sin set sail from San Francisco to go to Hawaii on November 14 last year. On the way, his sail broke and later, his radio antenna. So he was incommunicado. Soon his food supplies ran out and all he had was olive oil to keep him going.
''He said he saw two ships on his way but they did not help him,'' writes Smita, who also informs us that Vilas had contacted the US Coast Guard which passed on medical instructions over the radio. Sin will now be handed over to them once Clementine docks in Panama next week.
The story of Sin's rescue finds a brief mention in Daily Telegraph edition of February 23: ''An American man close to death has been rescued after drifting for a month in a yacht 700 miles from land in the Pacific Ocean. The man, identified on his passport as Tony Sin, was being treated last night by members of the all-Indian crew. The ship's captain, Vilas Pimpalkhare, said that Mr Sin, a US national believed to have been born in Korea, could barely speak and was only able to take a little liquid brushed on his lips.''
London-based Sunil Malhotra, director of Ocean Bulk Carriers, which owns the ship, is proud of the work done by Vilas and his crew.
When contacted by The Indian Express, he said: ''Toni Sin is steadily recuperating and is still sailing in Clementine with the crew. The ship will reach Panama on March 3 or 4.''
By Vinita Deshmukh
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