Nacho chips, crackers and tiny fish: How a B.C. senior survived on the open sea for nearly 6 days

Don Cavers didn't realize howweak he wasuntil a giant merchant ship pulled up within metres of his life-raft to rescue him.

For the previous 5days, the B.C. senior had been floating on the open water of the Caribbean Sea,eating only nacho chips, crackers and a handful of tiny fish he was able to catch.

The covered raft had been his only protection from the elements after he ran the Starlight, his Ericson sailboat, onto a reef near the coast of Cuba enroute from Colombia to Puerto Rico.

"You basically just deal with one thing at a time and figure out a solution," he said.

Caverswas rescuedon Dec.14, 2021.

He's no stranger to tight situations or seeking adventure. He saidhepreviously survived amoebic dysentery in Afghanistan in the 1960s, had asailboat destroyed by hurricane-force winds off the coast of Texas in the early 1990sand navigated a forced landing in Kelowna, B.C., when his four-seat plane malfunctioned in the mid-2000s.

Through it all,Cavers, 77,who lives in Blind Bay, B.C.,said he has learned an important lesson about how to survive: "It's the panic that kills you."

The most recentmisadventure started back in November 2021when he flewto Colombia to pick up a sailboat he had purchasedsight unseen.

Pretty quickly after he set sail forPuerto Rico on Dec.2,2021,Cavers ran into trouble with the winds off the coast of Colombia.

"The boat seemed a little sluggish, so I took my headlamp and took a look down below and discovered I had three inches [eight centimetres]of water over the floorboards ... it turned out that every hatchin the boatwas spraying water."

He managed to bail out most of the water, but within 36 hours, the salt had destroyed most of the boat's electrical systems.

Reef tears open sailboat

For the next twodays, he said he hand-steered the ship for 16 to 18 hours straight before managing to get his autopilot working on the morning of Dec. 7. He spent the next day and a halftrying to fix his other equipment, only taking short breaks to sleep.

"I fell asleep at a very inopportune time and woke up to a very heavy bump and found myself bouncing on a reef the keel caught and probably tore the stern open because theboatstarted sinking pretty quickly."

As the boat sank, Caverssaid hewas able to grab a few things that would end up being key to his survival a working computer, his bag filled with life-savingsupplies,including flares and a signal mirror, a bag of nacho chips and a package of crackers, a waterproof backpack with his identification, a 20-litre container of water and his personal locator beacon.

After launching the life-raft, he was able to transfer the supplies in with the intent of staying tied to the wreck.

However,he said heavy waves forced him to detachand the wind pushed him into the open ocean.

Meanwhile back in Canada, his youngest child, Annelise Grube-Cavers, was expecting to have received a call via satellite phone a call that never arrived.

Knowing of her dad's past escapades, she gave him a bit of time before getting worried.

"On the seventh day I thought, OK, even with some delays, like he should have arrived somewhere by now," she said.

Grube-Cavers searched online for people to help and eventually reached out to a pair of retired FBI agents behind Boatwatch.org, a volunteer-run organization in Floridathat tracks missing boaters.

Owner Eddie Tuttlesuggested Grube-Cavers report her dad missing to officials with the U.S. Coast Guard'sRescue Co-ordination Center in Miami and helped her navigate the complexity of a rescue involving multiple countries, connecting her with officials with the coast guards in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

WATCH |Don Caversexplains how he spent5days on a life-raft:

Don Cavers says he survived on a diet of nachos and crackers while stranded on the open ocean

3 years ago

Duration 1:06

Don Cavers spent six days in a life-raft on the Atlantic Ocean. He describes how he managed to stay alive.

While Grube-Cavers worked on navigating the bureaucracyof an international rescue, Cavers worked on staying alive.

He said he rationed his nacho chips to a handful in the morning and night, lasting him three days before moving on to his crackers. On the morning of his fifthday, he discovered that he could catch small fish in the mesh wind-sock-style cone that the raft pulled behind it to stabilizethe craft.

"That was breakfast that day ... on a cracker."

The rest of the time was spent journalling on the back pages of a survival manual that he found in his ditch bag and adjusting the tent of the raft to better protect himself from wind and waves.

"That's how time goes. It's pretty meditative."

Beacon activated

Three days after the wreck, Caversmanaged to get the locator beacon broadcasting. It sent a satellite message to an international network, including the Canadian Mission Control Centre and the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Trenton, Ont. Both organizations are a part of Canada's national search and rescue operations.

Those teams worked to identify who the beacon belonged to and convince other officials to check out the source of the satellite pings, said Capt. Brian Bowen, duty operator with the Canadian Mission Control Centre.

Ultimately, it was an alert sent out by the U.S. Coast Guard that resulted in Cavers's rescue.

A merchant ship called the Bulk Pangea volunteered to help.

Cavers was lying in his raft about halfway between Cuba and the coast of Mexico's Yucatn Peninsulaon the afternoon of the sixth day when he heard the blast of a ship's horn.

"Usually when you're in a sailboat and a ship is blowing his horn, it means get out of your way. And I'm in a life-raft. I can't get out of the way, so I immediately unzipped and fired a couple of flares up and grabbed the radio to let these guys know that, 'Hey, I can't get out of your way,' and they said, 'Oh no... We're here to rescue you.'

"That's when things kind of came together."

'We're very, very lucky'

Until his rescue, hesaidhe didn't realize how easy it would have been for him to have not survivedhis nearly six day journey on the life-raft.

"I expected to end up on the beach somewhere," he said.

The crew was able to get him aboard, fed and in contact with his family.

"We're very, very lucky," said Grube-Cavers. "My dad is really good at responding to emergencies. I would say he's not that good at avoiding these."

The teams in Trenton described this rescue as "unusually successful," said Capt. Jean House, search manager with theJoint Rescue Co-Ordination Centre.

"Ninety-nine times out of 100 it would have gone the other way ...you know, he could have been drifting in that dinghy for weeks, so things turned out really good for him."

Returning home

Cavers travelled with the Bulk Pangea to the ship's destination in Jamaica. There he was given a physical examination by a localdoctorand a PCR test for COVID-19. When his test came back negative, he was escorted to the airport, where he boarded a plane toToronto and eventually tothe airport in Kelowna.

Cavers saidthe whole incident has made him reconsider his approach to life. He'll continue to sail on histwo remaining boats, but will aim to stay a bit closer to home.

"This is not a hero's journey. This is a fool's journey," he said."I feel renewed, I guess, and then spending a lot more time with my grandkids than I used to ... so, slightly different priorities."