On Monday, March 13th, Rick Rodriguez and three companions embarked on a sailing trip to French Polynesia. The four friends were in the middle of eating pizza and enjoying their night sailing.
However, their journey was cut short when their 44-foot sailboat, the Raindancer, collided with a whale. According to Rodriguez, the second pizza had just come out of the oven and he was dipping a slice into some ranch dressing when they felt the back half of the vessel suddenly rising violently upwards and to starboard. It was then that Rodriguez noticed a bleeding whale in the water, indicating that the boat had made contact with the creature.
The impact was so powerful that the vessel was completely sunk in a matter of 15 minutes. The four passengers had to abandon their boat and take refuge in a small life raft, where they remained for nine hours before being rescued by another boat.
The group was finally rescued by a boat named Rolling Stones, captained by Geoff Stone, 42, of Muskego, Wis. Before the rescue, Rodriguez sent out multiple text messages to friends and family to inform them of the situation.
Once the Rolling Stones arrived, the four passengers were brought on board, safe and sound. Rodriguez thanked the catamaran’s crew for coming to their rescue, calling them “good hearted”. After the rescue, Rodriguez mourned the loss of his beloved sailboat, which he said was his “ticket to exploring the world”.
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“In the end, she was lost at sea, and left myself and the crew with one last incredible story. I’ll remember that boat for the rest of my life,” he wrote. “What’s left of my home, the pictures on the wall, belongings, pizza in the oven, cameras, journals, all of it, will forever be preserved by the sea.”
