Survival at Sea: The Harrowing Tale of the Trashman Yacht Sinking

In this episode of The Compendium, we’re telling you guys about the The Harrowing Tale of the Trashman Yacht Sinking. What began as a routine yacht delivery across the Atlantic turned into an unthinkable nightmare. Today you’ll hear about the incredible true story of Deborah Scaling Kiley and her crewmates as they face starvation, brutal storms, and relentless shark attacks. With nothing but sheer willpower and a fragile lifeboat, this is a tale of survival against all odds. Gripping, heart-stopping, and haunting—this story will leave you questioning just how far you’d go to stay alive.

We give you just the Compendium, but if you want more, here are our resources:

• Albatross: The True Story of a Woman's Survival at Sea - by Deborah Scaling Kiley
• Two Came Back (1997) - IMDb
• I Shouldn’t Be Alive: Shark Survivor - Discovery Channel
• The True Story of the Trashman Yacht Sinking - Survival Stories

Host & Show Info

• Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam Cox
• About: Kyle and Adam are more than just your hosts, they’re your close friends sharing intriguing stories from tales from the darker corners of true crime, the annals of your forgotten history books, and the who's who of incredible people.
• Intro Music: Alice in dark Wonderland by Aleksey Chistilin

Community & Calls to Action

• ⭐ Review & follow on: Spotify & Apple Podcasts
• 📸 Follow us on Instagram: @theCompendiumPodcast
• 🌐 Visit us at: TheCompendiumPodcast.com
• ❤️ Early access episodes: Patreon

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Chapters

• 0:00 Sneak peak
• 0:54 Welcome to The Compendium
• 2:23 Topic of the week
• 58:36 Outro

Transcript

[00:00:00] Brad is of course furious at John for dying, and this is crazy because part of what was keeping him going was the thought that he would get credit for helping everyone survive. Like his motivation for staying alive was tied to this idea that he might be seen as a hero when this was all over.

[00:00:15] Kyle Risi: But in his exhaustion, he hadn't even protested when John stepped off the boat, and in that moment he realizes that actually, There's nothing heroic about his own actions. He just stood by while John went and fed himself to the sharks. 

[00:00:55] Hello and welcome to The Compendium, an assembly of fascinating things. A weekly [00:01:00] variety podcast that gives you just enough information to stand your ground at any social gathering.

[00:01:04] Adam Cox: We guide you through stories from the darker corners of true crime, the hidden gems of history, and the jaw dropping deeds of extraordinary people. 

[00:01:12] Kyle Risi: I am Kyle Reesy, your ringmaster for this episode.

[00:01:15] Adam Cox: And I'm Adam Cox, the social media exec of the circus. 

[00:01:20] Kyle Risi: Well, you're not doing a good job. Have you seen how many followers we have on Instagram? 

[00:01:23] Adam Cox: Um, 

[00:01:24] Kyle Risi: I'll get round to it. If you are going to be social media expert for that week, I expect results. Okay, I'll get us one follower. Probably be Holly. She doesn't follow us on Instagram. She's our biggest fan and she does not follow us on Instagram.

[00:01:40] Adam Cox: Well, um, I don't know, put better content out there, Kyle. 

[00:01:44] Kyle Risi: do! Before we dive in, a quick heads up for all you lovely freaks out there . Remember, signing up to Patreon for free gets you early access to next week's episode an entire seven days before anyone else. And if you want even more, become a certified freak to unlock all of our unreleased episodes. It [00:02:00] is the best way to support the compendium and keeps us growing. 

[00:02:03] Adam Cox: While you're at it, don't forget to follow us on your favourite podcast app and leave us a review. Your support really does help us reach more people who, like you, love a good tale of the unexpected. Like Pedro, he's also a big fan. 

[00:02:15] Kyle Risi: Yeah, but But Pedro! We need you to comment on instagram! Right? No one sees your comment on Spotify.

[00:02:22] All right then freaks, enough of the housekeeping. Let's buckle up and get the show started because Adam, today we are diving into an assembly of survival and chaos on the high seas where every choice could mean the difference between life And death. 

[00:02:38] Adam Cox: I love a good survival story.

[00:02:39] Yeah, you recently just did one, didn't you? With Mr. Chris Lemon. 

[00:02:43] Kyle Risi: I think that's coming out after this episode, actually. Is it? I can't remember. It's either this one first or your one first. Who knows? A roundabout. 

[00:02:49] But Adam, imagine this. You are stranded in the middle of the Atlantic after your yacht has sunk in the middle of the night.

[00:02:55] Oh no. 

[00:02:56] You are clinging to a tiny inflatable dinghy. There is no land in sight, [00:03:00] zero supplies. I'm talking no food, no water. You are trapped with people that you would not even spit on if they were on fire. This 

[00:03:08] doesn't sound like a nice crew. No, does any of those people come to mind? Um, no. I'm pleasantly surprised.

[00:03:15] I thought you would say you. I would spit on you if you're on fire. Even if you're not on fire, I'd spit on you. Not in like, a dirty way. When it's like, warm. Like, hey Adam, it's so hot, would you, would you spill me? Keep it cool. 

[00:03:30] So Adam, the water around you is completely teeming with hundreds of sharks. There is no way to escape and to make things even worse. You are not even sure if help is on the way. 

[00:03:41] Tell me. What do you do to stay alive in this situation? 

[00:03:45] Adam Cox: I don't feel like there's a much chance of me staying alive in this situation. 

[00:03:49] Kyle Risi: I guess you just throw it all, like, to God, right? And just like, please, just save me. There's not a lot that you can do in this situation.

[00:03:56] Adam Cox: I'm sorry I'm turning up late to this whole religion thing. [00:04:00] But, 

[00:04:00] Kyle Risi: but can I, can I get a free ride? Please? 

[00:04:03] Adam, today I'm going to be telling you the story about the incredible survival efforts of five ordinary people who found themselves crammed shoulder to shoulder drifting helplessly on an 11 foot raft in the vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean.

[00:04:16] They were surrounded by nothing but 40 foot waves, icy seas, and endless suffocating horizons. They're completely out of food, out of water, and entirely at the mercy of all the sharks that are circling them like vultures, picking them off one by one like fucking canapes.

[00:04:33] Adam Cox: Wow, that's, it sounds horrific. 

[00:04:35] Kyle Risi: It's a wild ride, Adam. Is it weird that I now fancy canapes? If we be serious about this, this isn't a story about a shipwreck. It is about desperation, survival, and the reality that every choice that you make is a matter of life and death.

[00:04:51] It is a story that will make you hope that you're never in this situation, and Let me say right now that not everyone in the story gets out alive. 

[00:04:59] [00:05:00] Today's episode of the compendium, I'm going to be telling you about the absolutely mental story of the 1981 trashman yacht sinking.

[00:05:07] Have you heard the story before? 

[00:05:08] No, and what a name for a yacht. I know, right? 

[00:05:11] Trashman. 

[00:05:13] Adam Cox: Why is it not called like, the, the, the Belinda or, I don't know, the Beaumont? The Pan. Yeah. You 

[00:05:20] Kyle Risi: know what I mean?

[00:05:21] Adam Cox: Yeah, why Trashman? That is not a good name for a yacht. 

[00:05:24] Kyle Risi: Well, I'll explain very briefly in just a second. Okay. But yeah, this story is just crazy. After you did the actual shark arm episode I kind of fell down a bit of a rabbit hole looking into kind of other shark related stories, which I ended up stumbling across this crazy story of these people being stranded in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean where they just completely fall apart psychologically due to of course the lack of food and water to the point that delirium starts settling in and they start acting like zombies in one case viciously start attacking each other.

[00:05:53] Adam Cox: Okay that sounds like something out of an end of the world kind of movie. Yeah 

[00:05:57] Kyle Risi: like a horror movie. Yeah. So buckle up Adam because [00:06:00] today's episode is going to be a wild ride. 

[00:06:03] Adam Cox: Okay, I can't wait to hear more. 

[00:06:05] Kyle Risi: Our story once again takes us back to the 1980s. October 1982 to be exact. This was the decade of big shoulder pads. Wham had just released their debut single Wham Rap. Princess Grace of Monaco sadly has just died in a car accident at the age of 52. E. T. is dominating the box office and the personal computer is named the machine of the year.

[00:06:28] The economy is good, quality of life is an all time high, it's all popping off, and this is the era I imagine that this song defines the decade. 

[00:06:37] I love a bit of Phil Collins. He is so bloody good, isn't he? Yeah. When I was a kid, my dad used to have all these cassette tapes, and one of them was this particular album.

[00:06:48] And I would grab his little radio. My friend had like a little concrete covered gazebo thing. And I would go into the backyard, put the radio in the middle of this gazebo and had my [00:07:00] roadblades on and I would just skate round and round and round listening to this song. Were you, were you in hot pants?

[00:07:06] I probably was. I was probably in shorts. I lived in South Africa, so everyone wears shorts. And your mom and dad had no idea. They had no idea. They were just concerned about where their Phil Collins tape was. 

[00:07:18] But yeah, this was the song that defined that decade. And this was also the year that a Texas businessman, whose name we don't know. Buys a 58 foot. luxury yacht, which he decides to name the Trashman. 

[00:07:30] Adam Cox: And so why the Trashman? Because as we said, it's like the worst name. 

[00:07:34] Kyle Risi: Yeah, it's not like, it's nothing like the Pam, is it? Well, he called it the Trashman because he had actually built his fortune in the rubbish industry.

[00:07:41] So it was probably like a playful reference to his success in the waste management business. Yeah, but still, you don't name your yacht that. He's probably really proud of the fact that he's like, come from nothing, he's come from the gutter, and he's made a fortune in the gutter. 

[00:07:55] Adam Cox: Yeah, okay. Well, fair enough. It's his money. 

[00:07:58] Kyle Risi: So the yacht was commissioned to be built [00:08:00] by a renowned yacht builder in Rhode Island called Alden Yachts. When it was completed, it was ready to be delivered to its owners. And so it needed to be sailed from Maine to Florida, which is around about 1, 100 nautical miles.

[00:08:11] It's a journey that typically takes around three to four weeks, depending on obviously the weather conditions. 

[00:08:16] And typically, delivery of these yachts can be done in a number of different ways. The client can choose a professional yacht service to do the delivery, or it can be transported over land or directly handed over to the client. But since the client lived in Florida, Alden Yachts recruited a professional sailing crew. 

[00:08:32] They hire a captain called John Lippoth, his crew are Mark Adams, Brad Kavanagh, and Debra Scaling Kiley. Now, they kind of all know each other through connections within the small little group, like Debra knows Brad, and Brad knows Mark, and, the captain obviously knows Brad, and that's how they've connected all these people together.

[00:08:52] Okay. 

[00:08:52] Also on board is Captain John Lippoth's new girlfriend, Meg mooney. Meg Mooney, what a great 

[00:08:59] Adam Cox: name! Any [00:09:00] one that has like double alliteration, or just alliteration. Alliteration makes it a good, a good name, doesn't it? Yeah. 

[00:09:05] Kyle Risi: they're all in their mid to late 20s. They're all pretty experienced sailors in their own right. Deborah especially was already an accomplished sailor and adventurer who had just accomplished being the first American woman to complete the Whipbread Around the World Race in 1981. Basically, it's It's rich people sports, the only crewmate who doesn't know anything about sailing is John's girlfriend Meg, who was just along for the lols, essentially.

[00:09:28] And delivering ships to the wealthy was kind of the thing that these experienced sailors did to make money outside of like competing and racing and things like that. 

[00:09:37] And so on this particular trip, it was going to take around about three weeks, they would be taking their time, giving them a chance to enjoy the open waters, stop along the way, relaxing, spending time swimming, chilling out. Basically, to them, this was a fantastic gig. You're pretty much getting paid to just be on a luxury yacht. 

[00:09:54] Adam Cox: So it almost sounds a bit like a holiday. I mean, yes, 100 percent they've got work to do, but they've just got to [00:10:00] deliver a yacht. And on the way, they can just chill out, chill out, enjoy the sun, the sea.

[00:10:05] Kyle Risi: I'd love that kind of gig. Yeah, that's nice. But these guys, they're not in service, right? They're not catering to any rich clients on board. They can just, they've got the yachts themselves. 

[00:10:14] Adam Cox: They haven't got to serve food or anything. We'll get up that early, surely. Probably, unless they have to like, make a deadline, but it doesn't sound like they do need to. No, 

[00:10:21] Kyle Risi: I feel like they can control their own Yeah, their own destiny. So, during preparations and in the lead up to setting off, Deborah notices that the yacht wasn't really kitted out properly.

[00:10:30] First kind of foreshadowing, if you will. Okay. It doesn't have the appropriate navigational charts or the proper abandoned kit in the dinghy, which which is essentially the yacht's lifeboat and survival supplies in the event that the worst should happen.

[00:10:44] They also noticed that during their trials the yacht motor kept sputtering and breaking down and when the engine would break down they would have to rely on the sails to navigate in and out of port. 

[00:10:54] And this is when she notices that They also seem to have developed some wind damage, which could limit its ability to kind of [00:11:00] navigate properly. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be too much of an issue as long as, of course, the weather condition stays stable throughout the trip, right? Right. Okay, but this is supposed to be a new yacht. I know! 

[00:11:10] Adam Cox: This doesn't sound 

[00:11:10] Kyle Risi: like I'd be like, uh, guys, snag check. 

[00:11:13] Adam Cox: Yeah. because someone would have gone through this and go like, right, we haven't actually fitted it correctly with the health and safety stuff. This bit's broke. 

[00:11:20] Kyle Risi: How did that get passed? 

[00:11:21] Adam Cox: It's mental, isn't it? I don't know. Because this is probably going to cost like millions, right? Possibly. 

[00:11:25] Kyle Risi: Yeah. 

[00:11:25] But of course, the biggest issue and concern for Deborah is Captain John. He wasn't really taking this gig seriously. He seemed to just be really preoccupied with hanging out with his girlfriend Meg. Also, Mark, the other guy, Deborah is not impressed by his condescending tone and his chauvinistic attitude.

[00:11:41] He's very young. He thinks he knows everything. He doesn't. And basically he just sees this trip as a bit of a holiday. All he wanted to do all day is just get pissed. And that's what he does immediately after getting on board. 

[00:11:51] So what was his role on the 

[00:11:53] He's like a skipper, I guess. Yeah. So it was kind of just sort of Debra and Brad who seemed to be taking everything seriously. [00:12:00] Like, they were there to have fun, don't get me wrong, but they also realised that sailing is serious and can be potentially dangerous. So they understood the importance of keeping their wits about them. 

[00:12:08] Debra weighs up the risks in her mind. She thinks that as long as her and Brad are in complete cooperation with each other, they would get through this trip without any issue. After all, it was fucking good money and once the trip was over, she would never have to sail with these assholes ever again. 

[00:12:22] Adam Cox: Okay. 

[00:12:23] Kyle Risi: I will say at this point that not everyone in the story is going to survive. Deborah, she does survive. I won't tell you who doesn't, but essentially, because she does survive, this whole story is pretty much told from her point of view.

[00:12:34] So following this entire saga, she will actually go off to write a book called Albatross the True Story. of a woman's survival at sea. Why Albatross? I don't know, it's like maybe because birds are out there on the ocean for weeks and weeks, I guess. Uh, okay. So I don't know.

[00:12:50] And basically it's through this book that the world comes to have this story. It also then ended up up spurring a couple TV movies. Believe it or not, one of them actually stars Melissa Joan Hart. Sabrina! [00:13:00] Yeah! And I mean, I love Sabrina the Teenage Witch, but if you're casting Melissa Joan Hart, then it's not going to be a great movie, Adam.

[00:13:07] Adam Cox: That's a lil Hart. She was great, although I don't know if she has, like, the serious acting chops. 

[00:13:11] Kyle Risi: And this is a serious film! It's about people surviving out on the ocean, and you've got Melissa Joan Hart, which I love. I mean, Don't get me wrong. I did watch it. She does her best and I do commend her for that. She did her best. 

[00:13:24] It gets like 32 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Yeah. So is she playing Debra in this? She plays Debra. Yeah. Okay. I feel like I need to watch this. It's an epic. So for a bunch of my research for this episode, I also watched this incredibly cheesy show called I Shouldn't Be Alive. And it's kind of one of those shows that you might see on like the Discovery Channel with the epic background music interspersed with recreated footage with Deborah and others telling their accounts what happened basically. 

[00:13:51] So during the day they set off from Maine and they are heading towards Florida. They're out in the ocean, conditions are perfect, everyone is getting along, they're having [00:14:00] a few drinks, just getting to know each other, Deborah describes this moment as life just not getting any better than this and it sounds idyllic like do you remember that time that we spent time on that yacht in Santorini with all those random people that we wouldn't even spit on if they were on fire?

[00:14:15] That's harsh. That's not true. They were lovely. They were all lovely. 

[00:14:19] It was just amazing, like you were just sailing there, you got the wind in your hair, your, shirt's kind of billowing in the wind. Oh, you get to lay on that big old kind of like, that net kind of hole in the middle of the boat and just see down in the ocean.

[00:14:32] It was amazing.

[00:14:33] So as the evening draws in, an unexpected storm starts heading towards him. And this is a surprise since there was no indication of this printed out on the weather plans. Remember, this is 1982, so nothing was kind of computerized back then. 

[00:14:45] It was like when you have to log onto the AA route finder and print out your directions for like a trip that you're making across country. And in sailing, you would kind of do something very similar, but for your weather predictions. 

[00:14:55] So as the storm approaches, waves start reaching like 10 to 15 [00:15:00] meters and very quickly it becomes like a roller coaster on board, you're kind of like surfing up these huge waves where the yacht will then go up and up and up and then crash down.

[00:15:09] So you have this constant feeling in your stomach when you just drop and deborah says like this Is fun if you're an experienced sailor because yeah fun she says this because it really challenges you, but it also breaks up the monotony of what can be a fairly boring trip out on sea for like three weeks. 

[00:15:27] Adam Cox: I mean, okay, fine, but I don't know, I remember when we went snorkeling, and it was getting a little bit choppy on the boat when we were coming back. in Australia? Yeah. I remember starting to feel a bit nauseous. 

[00:15:38] Kyle Risi: Okay, that's nothing like this, do you remember when we were in China and we were traveling from Hong Kong to Macau, and we got that Chinese ferry and that storm set in and literally the waves were just pushing us up. We were almost vertical. 

[00:15:53] And at one point, everyone around us was staying really calm. And I was like, these people, I can see in the back of the mind that they're [00:16:00] petrified, we're going to die. Because it's also pitch black outside. So you can't see anything. You don't know if the waves are coming over you. But I thought we were going to die. I thought that was it. I was literally looking for my life jacket. 

[00:16:10] Adam Cox: Yeah, there was it was definitely a white knuckle kind of moment. Everyone's gripping on but there were some people that seemed like, oh, this is just normal. This is what happens. But a lot of people were a little bit on edge. 

[00:16:19] Kyle Risi: Yeah, I think that's what this was like. And Adam, I can't stress that panic of feeling like, shit, every moment could be your last moment. Especially every time you go up, you're like, are we going to like land back down safely?

[00:16:31] But the thing is though, as the storm starts settling in, Mark is super, super drunk. He has spent the whole day drinking. By this point, he is literally up on deck. In those conditions. He's really erratic. He's really boisterous. He's been rude to Debra and the others. Captain John, he's pissed too. He's just fooling around with Meg down below.

[00:16:47] At one point, like an idiot, Meg goes up on deck alone, and as the yacht drops after going over one of these huge swells, she falls over and she really badly hurts herself. 

[00:16:57] She is screaming [00:17:00] in pain. They start seeing this big bruise kind of forming on her lower part of her body, kind of near her kidneys. But in the darkness and the rough conditions, they can't really figure out how badly she's hurt. 

[00:17:09] So Captain John decides that they should probably try and head into shore for the evening. But when he goes to check, he doesn't actually have the maps for that particular part of the coastline.

[00:17:19] We'll And Debra's like, oh my god, you're so unprepared. And this is just another thing that she's really pissed at him about. 

[00:17:25] So Captain John, he sends a signal to the coast guard who tells him to make the way towards the North Carolina kind of shore. He's like, you're in North Carolina, just go east or whatever.

[00:17:34] Debra and Brad, they make their way up to a just course. And when they get there, Mark is still up there, he's steering, he's pissed out of his mind, He's holding a bottle of scotch and he's howling into the night, he's laughing like a fucking maniac, and he's just having the best time.

[00:17:47] They proceed to adjust course, but of course there's no use, the waves are just too big and too strong to have any meaningful impact on their direction. 

[00:17:55] Adam Cox: This sounds horrendous, because How are the captain and this mark guy able just [00:18:00] to just have like have a good time with this? 

[00:18:02] Kyle Risi: I think honestly it's because This is their trip, right? They don't have any clients on board. They're not competing in a competition. They don't have to be anywhere anytime soon. They do see this as a holiday and it's easy money. So they are just drinking and they are experienced in their own right. 

[00:18:16] Adam Cox: Yeah, but still like surely drinking like you say this could be dangerous and right now it is dangerous.

[00:18:21] Kyle Risi: But remember according to the weather charts this storm wasn't coming in. So it did kind of take them by surprise. Debra and Brad of course had the right mind to kind of make sure they stayed focused and they did. Yeah. 

[00:18:31] So as they're grappling with adjusting their course, suddenly the main sails rip off in the wind.

[00:18:37] So now, in their desperation, they figure that maybe if they try and start up the yacht's engines, they'll be able to kind of try and move in the right direction. 

[00:18:45] But as they suspected, this ends up being pointless. After all, remember, this is a sailing yacht. The purpose of the engine is to allow for small manoeuvres while navigating in and out of dock.

[00:18:54] It's not all that simple meant for use out in the open sea, right? Yeah. 

[00:18:57] Nevertheless, they get the engine going, but within [00:19:00] minutes it begins overheating, it starts sputtering before smoking out and dying altogether. 

[00:19:05] Adam Cox: I would be panicking like hell right now. 

[00:19:06] Kyle Risi: Oh yes! So, to Debra, again, she has just pissed at John because this is yet another thing that he should have checked before leaving port, but he didn't.

[00:19:15] Why? Because he's a crappy captain. Now, not having an engine also meant that there was also no way to charge the yacht's batteries in order to speak to anyone off of the ship. 

[00:19:25] This is getting from like bad to worse. Adam, it's gonna get a hell of a lot worse.

[00:19:29] They have no sails, they have no engine, Meg is still howling in pain, they're violently bouncing up and down in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, nobody can stand for more than a few seconds without being shunted from left to right. 

[00:19:39] At this moment. Captain John decides that he needs to dispatch a call for rescue before the batteries run out of charge. right?

[00:19:45] But what is crazy is that in spite of everything that is happening, no one on board wants to make a call. And that's because apparently it's a thing of pride amongst boat people, like, you get yourself out of your own mess. You don't call for help. 

[00:19:58] Adam Cox: I'm sorry, that's just dumb. 

[00:19:59] Kyle Risi: [00:20:00] It's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life. But in the end, of course, Captain John is like, no, no, we've got to do this. So he calls for rescue. They say that there are two ships on the way, but it's going to take around about four hours for them to get there. 

[00:20:11] So, Even though the conditions are rough as hell, this kind of gives them their false sense of security and they start kind of letting the guard down a little.

[00:20:19] Debra says like, in hindsight, this is the moment that was kind of the kiss of death for them. Because like an idiot, Debra suggests that since there's not a lot they can do until the rescue ships arrive, they may as well go off and try and get some sleep. 

[00:20:31] Adam Cox: Well, that feels like a stupid move. How can you sleep in these conditions? If you're like going up these giant waves and crashing back down, like, you know what? We've got no way to get to safety. Let's just take a nap. 

[00:20:43] Kyle Risi: Of course, Adam. They can't really do that considering how rough the ocean is. So you're exactly right. So all they end up doing is just lying in their bunks while their minds are racing each time the yacht goes up and then crashes down.

[00:20:52] And each time it does, there's this fear that the yacht is just going to rip apart at any second.

[00:20:56] And remember, this isn't just rocking, right? The ocean waves come in these forms of [00:21:00] swells, which they ride up and up and up, and when you reach the top, the yacht comes crashing down on the other side. And this just goes on for hours and hours while they're laying their bunks. 

[00:21:09] Then the yacht starts riding up this one particularly huge wave, and as they ride it up and up And up, they make it over the edge, the yacht comes crashing down, and as it hits the water, it impacts through the front of the glass of the yacht, and the surface of the ocean just explodes through the front of the glass, and they immediately start taking on water.

[00:21:26] As the water floods through the cabins, Deborah assesses the damage. Get this, she estimates that they have about two fucking minutes before the yacht completely sinks beneath the ocean.

[00:21:37] Adam Cox: Like what do you even do at that point? You just get your life jacket? 

[00:21:39] Kyle Risi: You just have to get your slippers and get the fuck out. So they start evacuating everyone immediately. They all get up on deck. It is grey. It is tumultuous. And of course looking out over the ocean, it's completely pitch black. The rain is so heavy they can barely see what's in front of them. 

[00:21:55] It becomes clear that the yacht is actually going down way quicker than they expected. Not two [00:22:00] minutes, it takes like 60 seconds. Oh my word. They jump into action, they start undoing the ropes holding down the life raft that is being contained in this like pressurized plastic easy box.

[00:22:10] Once you get it out on the ocean you kind of like sort of press a button, it blows up the raft like a giant inflatable airbag and inside of that there's everything that they need like from signaling beacons, there's a little machine that turns salt water into fresh water, they've got like a canopy over it so they can get some shelter. Basically it's got everything that you need to be on the ocean for a while.

[00:22:30] On board there's also this little inflatable dinghy which would usually be used to kind of transport goods and people from the dock out to the yacht. So Brad grabs as he throws us into the ocean and they all start diving in to get away from the yacht as quickly as possible.

[00:22:42] Mark is the one who's holding the pressurized plastic box that contains all their supplies and of course the rescue raft. He manages to pop it open in the ocean, which immediately inflates the raft, but because he is so blind and drunk, When a wave smashes him, he becomes all disorientated, he [00:23:00] lets go of the raft and all of their supplies just wash into the darkness.

[00:23:04] Adam Cox: Mark is such an idiot. 

[00:23:06] Kyle Risi: It's gone. Their food, their water, their signalling beacon, fish hooks, radios, like, so they can signal out for help. 

[00:23:13] Adam Cox: They should not have left this duty to Mark. What, he's just such a liability. So all they've got is this tiny little dinghy. 

[00:23:20] Kyle Risi: Yeah, and of course, it's in this moment that they all understand that now the chances of survival is literally zero.

[00:23:27] Captain John, Brad and Deborah, they're all holding on to this crappy little dinghy. 

[00:23:30] But it's upside down in the current conditions. There's just no way to reliably flip it over so they can all get in. So they're just kind of dangling on the sides of it. Mark then eventually swims over having obviously just lost their raft and all their supplies and then they're like, oh shit. Where the fuck is Meg? 

[00:23:47] Adam Cox: Oh my god! This is like a family guy sketch. 

[00:23:52] Kyle Risi: It is! Poor Meg! So, of course, remember, they're all experienced people, so in their haste to get off the yacht, they'd forgotten about poor Meg. [00:24:00] So they look back at the yacht, and they see Meg holding onto the last bit of the yacht mast, just as it's about to disappear beneath the ocean.

[00:24:07] And of course, she's in so much pain after having hurt herself earlier, she doesn't know how to navigate the waves and swim out to the dinghy. Like, what you're supposed to do is you're supposed to wait for one of the swells to move away, and then you're clear to kind of just swim out.

[00:24:19] But she's just not savvy enough in that way to know how Plus also, she's injured and she's fucking petrified. 

[00:24:26] Adam Cox: Yeah. 

[00:24:27] Kyle Risi: So Debra says that all the men just freeze and they're just staring at her. 

[00:24:30] Adam Cox: And she's like, I'll fix this. 

[00:24:32] Kyle Risi: So Debra decides that she's going to swim out to get her. She grabs her, she pulls her back over to the dinghy where, seconds later, the yacht just sinks beneath the ocean.

[00:24:41] And Debra says watching the last couple feet of the yacht disappearing beneath the ocean was the loneliest feeling that she's ever felt in her entire life. They're all alone now. 

[00:24:52] Adam Cox: Hmm. Oh, they've got this tiny little dinghy. 

[00:24:55] Kyle Risi: Intenser. Okay. So that's our setup. I think it's now time to take a quick [00:25:00] break.

[00:25:00] And when we get back, we're going to see how the stranded crew faces freezing waters, circling sharks, and the battle to stay alive. Things are about to get terrifying as hell.

[00:25:13] Hey freaks, we're back. Adam, how are you holding up? Where's your mind at? 

[00:25:18] Adam Cox: Right now I'm thinking how the hell, I mean we know Deborah gets out of this, but I have no idea how this is, this feels like it's just gonna get worse. 

[00:25:25] Kyle Risi: It does. So, now our crew. They're just there in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, holding on the sides of this upside down dinghy.

[00:25:33] The ocean is bashing them in all directions, the water is freezing, and on top of this, it is pitch black to the point that these guys around this boat, they can't even see each other. Just a couple feet away. That's how dark it is. 

[00:25:44] Adam Cox: I can't even imagine that. 

[00:25:45] Kyle Risi: It must feel like hell. Yeah. The windchill is even colder than the water, and so they think that they're probably gonna die by hyperthermia, like, very, very soon.

[00:25:54] They all decide to get under the dinghy to protect themselves from the wind. Meg, she's in too much pain, and [00:26:00] she's extremely claustrophobic, so she decides to stay outside of the boat alone. And fucking John leaves her there. 

[00:26:06] Adam Cox: What a knob. 

[00:26:07] Kyle Risi: He's the reason why she's there and in this mess the men in this story I know incompetent apart from Brad. Okay, you'll see 

[00:26:15] So under the dinghy they use a line they manage to kind of rig to be able to suspend their bodies like logs so they can kind of sort of huddle together to share their body heat and Basically Adam that is how they survive the night 

[00:26:27] Adam Cox: That's pretty impressive. So they're just kind of suspending. On a rope. Underneath the dinghy. 

[00:26:33] Kyle Risi: They're all just kind of like maybe each one's got that one of their legs on there to kind of like prop themselves up and then they just stack themselves like logs. 

[00:26:40] When they have the light of the morning, the wind is still raging, it is still stormy out there, they decide that they need to flip the dinghy over to at least get out of the cold water.

[00:26:49] They coordinate in the light of the day, they flip the boat over, Meg is thrown into the dinghy first, they all clamber in, and this is where, for the first time, they see how bad her injuries are. 

[00:26:59] [00:27:00] When she fell over earlier on, a wire from the rigging of the yacht had run along her legs and had slashed them down to the bone in several places. Deborah says it was clear that her wounds were literally a death sentence and that if they weren't rescued very soon that she was going to die. 

[00:27:14] Adam Cox: Oh my god, and she stayed out there all night, I'd reckon they're underneath and go like, hey Meg, you okay out there? 

[00:27:20] Kyle Risi: We shouldn't laugh, this is a real serious story, Adam. We need to be a little bit sensitive to the fact. 

[00:27:28] Adam Cox: I'm using this as a coping mechanism because this would freak me out. 

[00:27:31] Kyle Risi: I know, I feel so guilty because sometimes my only reaction is to laugh. Like when we were going through the tiny head episode, all I could do is just sort of like laugh but that's how I cope. 

[00:27:40] Adam Cox: Yeah, I think so, because this is, I would never want to go through this. I wouldn't wish this on anyone, I don't think. 

[00:27:45] Kyle Risi: Not even my worst enemy. So of course, yeah, like I said, it's clear that her injuries are going to be a death sentence, they're not rescued very soon. She also doesn't tell Meg this, because of course she doesn't want to freak her out even more than she already is. 

[00:27:57] Because of course the ocean is still really rough, [00:28:00] Deborah and Mark decide to jump overboard to try and keep the dinghy steady and as they're holding on to the sides of the dinghy, Mark turns to Debra and says Can you just stop kicking my legs, please?

[00:28:09] And Debra's like, I'm not kicking you talking about? She moves away from him to prove that she's not kicking him and again, he's like quit it and in that moment They realize what's up. 

[00:28:18] Debra dips her head under the water and they see hundreds and hundreds of sharks just swarming around them She says that she's never seen this many sharks in one place in her entire life 

[00:28:27] Adam Cox: I love the fact that he thought, like, she was just playing around about all the things to do at this moment in time.

[00:28:32] Kyle Risi: Really? Is this the right time for me to be playing around with you? 

[00:28:35] Adam Cox: And then to realise there's that many sharks. Oh my god. 

[00:28:39] Kyle Risi: They, of course, they scream, they scramble, they get into the boat, and then they start seeing dozens of fins just popping in and out of the water. These sharks are literally circling them.

[00:28:48] Adam Cox: I'm guessing all the blood that's probably, been, like, streaming out of Meg all night has kind of brought them here. 

[00:28:53] Kyle Risi: Yeah. Awful.

[00:28:55] Problem is, now there was no one in the water keeping the dinghy steady, so they're [00:29:00] terrified that they're going to tip over. And I think it's Brad, he finds a sort of metal plate that's attached to the bottom of the dinghy with a circle hole that's cut out of it. 

[00:29:07] It was kind of like a piece of sheet metal that was used to kind of potentially give the dinghy some structural support at the bottom of the boat.

[00:29:14] They figure that if they can tie a length of rope through the cutout in the sheet metal plate, they can use this as like a makeshift anchor to kind of keep the boat steady on the water.

[00:29:22] So they do that, they throw it overboard, and Debra says that the second it lands in the water, the biggest great white shark she's ever seen in her entire life, grabs it in its mouth and just starts pulling them like a tugboat, dragging them and the boat behind it. 

[00:29:36] Adam Cox: Oh my God. I mean, that was kind of a smart move, but then that's completely backfired. Mm-hmm . And I just see them being like, yeah, dragged around. Yeah. Like all directions being tipped over. 

[00:29:46] Kyle Risi: That's the thing though. And the shark knows it's sort of caught, so it starts thrashing about, and the dinghy's like twisting in all directions and the petrify that's gonna capsize. So Brad clamors for his pocket knife, he cuts the rope, and the shark just scuttles off with the metal plate.

[00:29:59] So now they're [00:30:00] back at square one. The seas are still really choppy, they can't get back into the water to keep the boat steady, so they just continue to rock perilously. Every wave that hits them literally has the potential to tip them over, and all they can do is just pray that it doesn't happen. And this goes on for hours, and by some miracle, they do not tip over. 

[00:30:19] Adam Cox: That is, I don't know, someone must be looking down on them. Mm hmm. Helping them out. 

[00:30:23] Kyle Risi: Or mocking them. Why are they in this situation in the first place? Finally, the ocean does start to calm down. They continue to float all day. It's blistering cold, which means that all their wet clothes are starting to freeze. All they can do is just huddle together to try and keep warm. And that's how they stay, taking them into the second evening. 

[00:30:40] Night 2 is torturous for several reasons. Apart from, obviously, it being freezing and not having anything to eat or drink. They keep seeing ship lights in the distance. At first they desperately try and paddle towards them, screaming for help. 

[00:30:54] But the reality of the situation is that is pitch black, and they're out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. [00:31:00] Those ships are way off on the horizon. They can see the ships, but those ships cannot see them. 

[00:31:04] Adam Cox: You know, a flare would have been a really good thing about this.

[00:31:06] Kyle Risi: Exactly, but all washed away.

[00:31:08] So paddling towards them was just a complete waste of energy, energy that they just did not have. And remember, they're not eating or drinking, so they have to just resolve to sitting back and watching these ships sail past them in the distance. 

[00:31:21] Adam Cox: That must have been just Torture. 

[00:31:22] Yeah. 

[00:31:23] Kyle Risi: At this point, the craving for water has reached a point that it feels like every cell in their body is just calling out for it. Eventually, it does start to rain and their only option is to sort of tilt their head upwards towards the sky. And try and catch them in their mouths, but the wind was so cold and dry that instead of getting a drink, the wind ends up just drying out their mouths and their tongue more than the moisture that they could get into their mouths. It was like they were being taunted. Deborah says, It was literally like God was spitting on them. 

[00:31:52] Adam Cox: This is horrendous. It's awful. They can't catch a break. 

[00:31:56] Kyle Risi: I can't imagine it. Like, I can't even go without food [00:32:00] for like 10 hours. 

[00:32:01] Adam Cox: And water as well, just basic survival. And she's probably got to be on this little dinghy with bloody Captain John and Mark. 

[00:32:09] Kyle Risi: People that she hates, yeah. 

[00:32:11] Yeah. rest of the night trying to get some sleep, but they're still being tailed by all these sharks, so every time they get close to drifting off, a shark would bump into the dinghy, so they just have to lay there, exhausted, thirsty, starving, and petrified, that a shark was going to tip them over. 

[00:32:24] And that just happens all night, these sharks just will not leave them alone.

[00:32:28] Adam Cox: Like, toying with them. 

[00:32:29] Kyle Risi: The next day, Things are looking grim, as cold as it is at night, it's boiling hot during the day. The sun is beating down on them relentlessly. They're constantly scanning the horizons and the skies for any sign of the Coast Guard. They just can't understand why nobody has found them.

[00:32:45] Remember, they received confirmation that a ship was only four hours away, right? Even if they drifted a considerable distance, why hadn't they seen any helicopters overhead? They just cannot make sense of it. 

[00:32:56] The bottom of the dinghy is now filled with putrid water and blood [00:33:00] and urine and pus from Meg's leaking wounds and even worse than this the heat of the day was making it stink worse than death 

[00:33:08] gross and why is it filled with urine is that because of Meg she's so injured she can't get over the edge of the boat to have a pee right oh this is horrendous.

[00:33:17] Staff infections are now starting to settle in amongst their wounds from the infected water in the bottom of the boat. And this is particularly dangerous because once it reaches its peak, it starts to attack the heart as well so they could suffer from heart failure. Meg is still in a huge amount of pain and she's even at more dire risk because of course her injuries are the worst. And She's starting to lose colour in her skin, she's blue, like she's extremely weak. Deborah says like it's clear she has blood poisoning. Mm. 

[00:33:41] Tensions, of course, on the boat are also starting to rise. Like, Deborah has no respect for Captain John, who she blames for this entire situation. Mark is still completely insufferable, he's really arrogant, which only adds to the strain. So in response, Deborah and Brad begin to kind of form this little bit of an alliance. 

[00:33:57] They kind of stay down at one end of the [00:34:00] dinghy, while Captain John, Mark, and Meg remain at the other end. And they're just quibbling between the two groups. 

[00:34:06] When Debra and Brad need any sort of privacy they just kind of lean over the front edge of the dinghy just to kind of like Have a quiet discussion I just imagine them kind of like whispering and then looking back like tying them all suspiciously 

[00:34:18] Debra recalls that she and Brad made a pact to look after each other as a way of like finding a purpose for their own survival. She told Brad like, my purpose will be to make sure that you are safe, and yours will be to make sure I'm safe.

[00:34:30] And that will kind of give us some sort of motivation to survive. 

[00:34:33] Adam Cox: Sure. 

[00:34:33] Kyle Risi: Which I think is, is smart, like a lot of the time you do need a purpose in these situations. 

[00:34:37] Adam Cox: Especially if you're feeling like, well, at the moment it's complete disperse. So how they, yeah, they're expecting a ship to come along and rescue them. They need some need something to keep things going. 

[00:34:49] Kyle Risi: And I I think they also recognize that in these situations, it's a team effort you need to work together in order to make sure each other survives. So it's really smart. You can't do this on your own. 

[00:34:58] Meanwhile, the other [00:35:00] three in the boat, they're completely losing it. Meg is in too much pain to even move, she's constantly wailing. John and Mark, they just alternate between screaming and crying. Like, everyone is delirious and utterly exhausted. 

[00:35:13] Deborah and Brad, they do manage to get some sleep, but they wake up in the middle of the night. to find Captain John and Mark just frantically shoving seawater into their mouths as if like they are possessed by some kind of demon.

[00:35:25] Really? 

[00:35:26] Deborah is of course yelling at them to stop because drinking seawater is probably the worst thing that you can do in that situation. They're already like severely dehydrated. This just makes it worse. And also your kidneys start shutting down. But on top of that, drinking seawater affects your brain as well. So you start becoming really delusional. It will kill you drinking seawater, but that is if you don't kill yourself first, after the delusion sets in. 

[00:35:50] Adam Cox: I mean, yeah, would you do that? I guess they're just at this last resort, they just need some kind of moisture, some liquid. 

[00:35:56] Kyle Risi: Yeah, it sounds like to me that delusion's already set in before they've started.[00:36:00]

[00:36:00] Adam Cox: I mean, yeah, if they're like, shoving the water in like, the animals. The maniacs, yeah. 

[00:36:04] Kyle Risi: I guess it's just the sheer desperation, right? Mm. And so Deborah is like, Oh my God, you are going to lose it, which they do. So over the course of that night and the next day, Captain John and Mark, they start completely unravelling.

[00:36:16] They begin talking to themselves, having literally full blown conversations with people who just are not there. 

[00:36:21] At times they behave like animals. They're literally growling and crawling on all fours on the boat. 

[00:36:26] Other times they'll spontaneously burst into tears or laughter hysterically, like just flipping between the emotions within 30 seconds span of each other.

[00:36:34] Adam Cox: That must have been scary to watch. 

[00:36:35] Kyle Risi: Yeah. They keep convincing themselves that they see land on the horizon. Adam is just utterly dire. Debra says, it was like watching a movie of crazy people in an asylum. She just has to force herself to just ignore it because the more energy she spends reassuring them, the less energy she has for her own survival.

[00:36:54] So, she and Brad just sit back and they watch as these two people just completely have a mental [00:37:00] breakdown. She says it goes on all day, and the monotony of watching them shaking and flipping out and screaming was just starting to make her fucking crazy. 

[00:37:08] And then, out of nowhere, Captain John says, yeah, yeah, I'm just gonna go get my car. I'll be back in a second. He stands up, he steps straight off the side of the boat. And into the water. 

[00:37:17] Adam Cox: Oh no! 

[00:37:18] Kyle Risi: And they're like, Dude, what the F are you doing? He swims for like five meters and then suddenly they hear this blood curdling scream. John is jerked upwards then pulled straight under the water and he is gone. He is taken by a shark. 

[00:37:33] Adam Cox: Wow. So he must have like been seeing things and stuff like that. 

[00:37:38] Kyle Risi: Yeah, he's delusional. 

[00:37:39] Adam Cox: I can't believe this. 

[00:37:41] Kyle Risi: I mean, if I'm honest, I'm surprised he had lasted that long. I would have just let go of the boat, the dinghy. When we first jumped into the ocean.

[00:37:50] Adam Cox: There's also maybe a slight relief, like at least there's one crazy down. Yeah, because poor Deborah's just like, no, I'm kidding. But he, I don't know, a lot of this mess is down to him. [00:38:00] Mm hmm. So I don't know if I feel that sorry for him. 

[00:38:02] Kyle Risi: Yeah, that is an interesting dynamic. 

[00:38:04] Adam Cox: I don't he didn't deserve this to be fair. But yeah, I don't know. He was careless and put everyone at danger. 

[00:38:09] Kyle Risi: He's a victim of his own hubris, as they say. Yeah. Brad is of course furious at John for dying, and this is crazy because part of what was keeping him going was the thought that he would get credit for helping everyone survive. Like his motivation for staying alive was tied to this idea that he might be seen as a hero when this was all over.

[00:38:25] But in his exhaustion, he hadn't even protested when John stepped off the boat, and in that moment he realizes that actually, There's nothing heroic about his own actions. He just stood by while John went and fed himself to the sharks. 

[00:38:40] They continue to float in silence for hours and hours. Captain John, of course, has gone. Meg is utterly despondent. John was her boyfriend, like he was the only person that she knew. And they just ended up laying there, drifting in and out of sleep, caught between this weird cycle of just waking up, going [00:39:00] back to sleep, waking up, going back to sleep. 

[00:39:02] At one point, Deborah wakes up and she sees Mark at the other end of the dinghy. He has completely lost his mind and he's attempting to sexually assault Meg. Meg, of course, in her dreadful state, she's, I mean, she's barely alive. She's just laying there as Mark behaves as if though he's chatting someone up at a nightclub.

[00:39:20] He's like, he says things like, yeah, yeah, I know how to make you feel better. Yeah. I, I, I think we should like go back to my place and like, you know, have sex. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And like he's all the while trying to untie her trousers and Meg just lies there. She's completely paralyzed by the pain and of course grief. Right? She's just unwilling to resist or even able to react. 

[00:39:41] Adam Cox: That is disgusting. 

[00:39:42] Kyle Risi: Deborah then tells Brad, like, we need to do something. But they have no energy. All they can do is watch. 

[00:39:49] Then, Mark says to himself, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm just gonna go to the 7 Eleven. Yeah, I'll get some more beer and cigarettes for us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

[00:39:56] And Brad says to Mark, like, We're on a boat, mate. [00:40:00] Like, You're not going anywhere, Mark stands up, steps to the edge of the boat, and steps off. 

[00:40:05] Deborah then is like, Mark! A shark just ate John, what are you doing? And Mark's like, in a completely delusional state, he's like, no, no, I'm just stretching my legs, I'll get back in a second. 

[00:40:14] And then suddenly, they hear a boink, and then another, and then moments later, Mark is pulled literally under the water.

[00:40:20] The boat starts shaking violently, and before their eyes, a just frenzied attack just unfolds beneath the boat. The water around them starts churning like bubbles in a spa, and it just goes deep brown red, and Mark is just literally torn to shreds right beneath him. 

[00:40:35] Adam Cox: It's almost like watching a zombie movie or something in terms of just how someone just completely changes. It's, it's kind of, it's like, I don't know, I just can't imagine it, like, this kind of setting in. 

[00:40:45] Kyle Risi: And that's the thing, like, we protect ourselves a lot of the time when we watch these types of movies, knowing, that's just a movie, someone's just made this up. What we're experiencing here is that movie in actual real life.

[00:40:56] Adam Cox: Yeah. 

[00:40:57] Kyle Risi: And I think that makes you look at some of these other [00:41:00] movies like, this could fucking happen, right? A shark could literally rip you to shreds. It's not just in the movie, it's not just dramatized. 

[00:41:06] Adam Cox: And yeah, to be without water, food, delirious and everything, this is kind of where your mind goes. goes

[00:41:14] Kyle Risi: yeah so the sharks of course they've now already gotten a taste from john and now mark and they become even more aggressive and determined to get the others they start bumping into the boat more and more frequently trying to kind of tip them over the only thing that deborah and brad can do is lie as low as possible in the dinghy to kind of lower the dinghy center However, this does mean that they're now lying deeper and deeper in that filthy pool of urine and pus at the bottom of the boat. And they just accept it. And all they do again, they go back into that cycle of just drifting in and out of sleep between kind of consciousness and exhaustion. 

[00:41:47] Adam Cox: Yeah, I don't know if how I could even let myself go to sleep in this sort of situation. I guess maybe you just can't fight it. 

[00:41:51] Kyle Risi: You're just so tired. Yeah. That night, Deborah and Brad, they're jolted awake by The sound of growling. They look over, they see Meg [00:42:00] sitting up straight at the other end of the boat. She's super alert for the first time in days. She's staring at them with wild eyes, literally growling like a dog. They're frozen, like staring back at her thinking, What the hell's going on?

[00:42:11] And then, like, something out of a horror movie, Meg just suddenly lunges at Brad on all fours, clawing at his face, she's screaming like a zombie, she's digging at his face with this wild, frantic energy, it's just utterly horrific, especially when, You've just woken up and then you're experiencing this.

[00:42:28] Adam Cox: Yeah, it's not. You're like, no, it's fine, I'm still dreaming. It's not the morning wake up call you want. 

[00:42:32] Kyle Risi: Brad does fight her off, he manages to push her back, she calms down, she retreats to the other end of the boat, and she just sits there quietly. And then As if in a trance, she starts extending her arms out, like moving them slowly in front of her face as if she's like floating in space or in water, she becomes like really hyper fixed on her fingers, like she's staring at them as if they're just magical, and she starts speaking gibberish, Debra says it's almost as if she's speaking religious [00:43:00] tongues, and it becomes painfully clear to Debra And Brad, that they're literally watching Meg die right there and then, and there's literally nothing they can do.

[00:43:08] They eventually do fall back to sleep again, and when they wake up the next morning, on day five, Meg's dead. 

[00:43:13] Adam Cox: Shit. That's, yeah. All the stages that she went through before this, she has had such a horrible death. 

[00:43:23] Kyle Risi: Yeah, and she didn't ask for any of this, did she? Adam, they now have to have a conversation about whether or not they can eat her. They discuss if there was any feasible way that they could butcher parts of her body. And remember, they hadn't eaten for five days. 

[00:43:36] It does quickly become clear that they can't. And the issue wasn't whether or not they could morally justify eating her, it was whether or not eating her would make them sick.

[00:43:44] Adam Cox: I was gonna say, she must be like filled with poison. Yeah, she obviously died from blood poisoning meaning that her body was toxic and eating her could end up killing them They decide that they just need to get Meg's body off the dinghy Because essentially she's now rotting in the [00:44:00] relentless midday heat.

[00:44:01] They remove all of her clothes They set aside her jewelry thinking that maybe her family might want them Adam, it is a really sad moment actually and in the documentary it's a struggle for Deborah to kind of just keep her emotions in check. You can tell that this was really hard for her.

[00:44:15] And I imagine it would be hard for anyone. Yeah, especially for Meg, right? I can understand how Mark and John, they were victims of their own hubris, right? In a way, yes, they were delirious, but they took those actions to step off the boat. But then also they weren't very nice people. 

[00:44:29] Meg didn't ask for this.

[00:44:30] Yeah, so they found that really difficult. 

[00:44:32] They hoist her naked body over to the edge of the boat and they just they can't tip her over They need to give us some sort of funeral so they recite the Lord's Prayer and then slowly once that's done, they gently roll her body into the water and Immediately, they decide that they are going to go straight back to sleep.

[00:44:47] They get back down onto the boat Unable to bear the thought of watching the inevitable and then just like that 30 seconds later They hear the thrashing and that sound confirms that the sharks are taking her. 

[00:44:58] Poor [00:45:00] Meg. 

[00:45:00] Kyle Risi: Later that day you Brad, he can't stop retching up. And it's the putrid water in the bottom of the boat which has now started to make them sick and they realise that they need to just flush the boat out.

[00:45:11] But of course, the only way To do that is by flipping the dinghy over and then rinsing it with seawater. Of course, this means that they're risking their lives. The sharks are still circling them, but what other choice do they have? Right? 

[00:45:23] So they work together to carefully calculate in their exhausted state, how they can carefully, but quickly as possible, flip the boat, rinse it out, flip it back over, and then jump back in before the sharks try to attack them.

[00:45:38] So being the heaviest, Brad stands on the edge of the boat holding a tether tied to the opposite side of the boat. Debra leans towards the side where Brad is sitting, they're putting all the gravity to one side. 

[00:45:49] The plan is that Brad is going to hoist that rope. It'll flip the boat over once it's flipped over, they'll be able to work together really quickly to kind of flip it back over and then jump back in as quickly as possible, [00:46:00] sure. 

[00:46:00] Debra. At this moment, she's petrified because if Brad doesn't make it, she knows that she will just not have the strength to go on and continue to survive without him.

[00:46:12] So everything is going to for her is riding on them both surviving. 

[00:46:16] Adam Cox: Oh yeah, this is such a risky move because it sounds like it's essential at this point, but you've got, what, 100 sharks still there? Maybe three of them are now full? You've still got a lot that are going to be after you. Yeah, and they don't share. No. 

[00:46:29] Kyle Risi: So as Brad is standing on the edge of the boat, He suddenly slips into the water. He is completely drained. He doesn't have any strength to pull himself back into the dinghy. He is literally screaming to Deborah like, help me, help me, the sharks. And Deborah has, of course, no energy. She can't pull him in.

[00:46:44] She's now even more panicked. She just crawls to the other end of the dinghy. Tears are just streaming down her face. And all she does is just stare at him helplessly as he struggles in the water. And Brad is just screaming at her to help.

[00:46:58] Adam Cox: I guess. [00:47:00] Is she just at this point where she's completely exhausted and she just doesn't, I don't know, she just can't do anything? Yeah. Is she like almost frozen with fear? 

[00:47:06] Kyle Risi: She's frozen, yeah. Brad musters all the strength that he can, and in one desperate push, he does manage to hoist himself into the boat.

[00:47:16] Adam Cox: That's good. So he, The last bit of energy that he had he managed to do that, but they haven't been able to clean the water So this has all been for nothing 

[00:47:23] Kyle Risi: for nothing. Yeah, Brad is fucking pissed He's literally like bitch. You let me down supposed to be looking out for each other Yeah, they of course have made a promise to look out for each other and now that trust is gone completely collapsed.

[00:47:36] He's literally yelling, like, F you, you were going to let me die. And from that moment, that fragile alliance that they had maintained over the last five days was now completely shattered. They each moved to opposite ends of the boat, and they are eyeing each other with suspicion. 

[00:47:48] Adam Cox: That's so sad because they're the ones that, I don't know, you think now that the others almost have gone, That'd be a bit easier getting along.

[00:47:55] Kyle Risi: Yeah, pretty much they just sit in silence. And I think with [00:48:00] that trust now shattered, they have now just resolved themselves to letting them accept the fact that they're going to die, because they've now lost all hope, they've lost that motivation that was keeping them alive. It's really cute, though, because in the documentary, they were sitting together on the other end of the boat, and they would just cuddle the whole time. Oh, it's amazing that they'd never got together afterwards. 

[00:48:19] Adam Cox: I don't know, maybe there's a lot to go through. 

[00:48:21] Kyle Risi: Yeah, you saw me shit in a boat. We can't be together. Yeah.

[00:48:26] So they're just basically sitting out in the blazing heat. Like, they don't trust each other anymore. That's all shattered. They've accepted the fact that they're probably going to die. 

[00:48:35] And then Debra hears Brad say, oh my god, Debra, a ship. And she is like, there is no ship. You are delirious. She'd obviously heard the word ship being flung around. True. So many times over the last five days that she was like, yeah, so what? Big deal. And Brad is like, no, Debra, look. Look how close it is. 

[00:48:53] And she turns around and there is a ship like a hundred meters away. 

[00:48:56] Adam Cox: A hundred meters? How did that sneak up on them? I know! What [00:49:00] were they doing? Yeah. 

[00:49:01] Kyle Risi: I guess maybe they'd just woken up. I don't know. They start frantically waving, desperately trying to get the crew's attention. A crew member comes out to the edge. He stares at them for a second. And like, you just see the shock on his face. And he's clearly thinking like, what the hell is going on? And then one by one Other crew members come out as well, and they're just looking equally as stunned, and they're just all like, What? We're in the middle of the Atlantic, what's going on? 

[00:49:23] So they throw them a life ring. In that second, Deborah immediately hurls herself out of the dinghy, she's frantically swimming towards them. And Brad is just like, oh, thanks, Debra. 

[00:49:32] Adam Cox: And I was gonna say like, once again, Debra. 

[00:49:34] Kyle Risi: You've just left me here! So he's just like, okay, so he then follows her, and then together they grab hold of this lifesaver, and then they're just winched up onto this boat.

[00:49:43] Adam Cox: So they had to go into the waters in order to get out. So are the sharks still around? 

[00:49:47] Kyle Risi: Yeah, I don't know. Maybe the big ship that was there, maybe made them scuttle off. I don't know. 

[00:49:51] Adam Cox: But I guess this is your lifeline. So maybe you're just like, well, it's maybe a few meters away, I can get there.

[00:49:56] Kyle Risi: But what a risk to take, because the last hurdle after everything you've [00:50:00] been through, and then to risk it by potentially 

[00:50:03] Adam Cox: Yeah, for her to dive in, I'd almost be like to the crew, like, is there another way? Can we throw down a rope? 

[00:50:09] Kyle Risi: One of the crew gently lays them down on the deck. Deborah notices that they're all speaking Russian, which given that this was during the height of the Cold War, was quite significant back then. But in that moment, Deborah was like, I didn't care. I was alive. Right. 

[00:50:22] Adam Cox: And they're looking out for just a fellow human. So that's kind of nice. 

[00:50:25] Kyle Risi: Yeah. They'd actually been found roughly a hundred miles out to sea. That's an incredible distance typically, when you're sailing on a yacht, you stay kind of close to the coastline. So, of course, when the yacht sunk, they were drifted more than 100 miles out to sea. 

[00:50:39] Adam Cox: Yeah, so I'm guessing, what, you're within like a mile or two of the coast. So you're saying like actually, yeah, it's about a hundred miles they drifted out. That is a lot, and even if someone was searching for them, would they ever even found them?

[00:50:53] Kyle Risi: What's interesting is that in these survival situations, people who live while others die often carry the sense of guilt, [00:51:00] but when they're interviewing Deborah, she doesn't have any guilt at all. Like, she doesn't explicitly say why, but you can probably guess it's perhaps because John and Mark were victims of their own hubris, right? Like Captain John, he was woefully unprepared and neglectful of the dangers that came with his lack of preparation. 

[00:51:17] And then on the other end, Mark was cocky. He was arrogant. He was choosing to get blindly drunk after being in that dire situation, right? They were on the rough seas and he was still continuing to drink. 

[00:51:27] So yeah, kind of like the lack of guilt there is probably because of that. But however, meg She was super inexperienced though. It is clear that they did feel really really bad for what happened to her Like she didn't ask for any of this, right? That was clear from how difficult they found that process of having to throw her overboard 

[00:51:45] Adam Cox: Yeah, I guess I would agree with her because at the moment she has had like the slimmest odds of survival and It's only maybe with her relationship with Brad and actually being the two most sensible people on that ship They made it through like they could have easily [00:52:00] have died.

[00:52:00] Kyle Risi: Another reason the Coast Guard hadn't come looking for them was because someone had radioed from the yacht telling them not to. What? Remember how I mentioned, like, initially they were reluctant to call for help? Well, Captain John obviously made the ultimate call that he was going to call anyway.

[00:52:15] For Brad and Deborah, they were able to put their pride aside and realize that of course this was the right decision, of course. And in hindsight, they were lucky that John did do it. 

[00:52:23] But Mark wasn't having any of it. So, furious, he waits until everyone was trying to get some sleep. Just before the yacht started sinking, he sent out a radio call to cancel the request for rescue, insisting that they didn't need help anymore. And that single was what sealed their fate and left them stranded on the ocean. 

[00:52:38] Adam Cox: What a dick. I most definitely don't feel guilt for them now. Like, yeah, they could have been rescued way sooner if it wasn't for bloody Mark. 

[00:52:47] Kyle Risi: And again, if I was Deborah there wouldn't be any guilt on my part either Mark and John due to their own actions were the reasons why they were in that situation in the first place Mark's actions just made that a hell of a lot worse. 

[00:52:58] So following their rescue [00:53:00] Brad went on to become a captain frequently sailing the same route That they had set off on back in October 1982 and that must just been really triggering for him at times like reliving that trauma in his mind every journey that he makes along that same route.

[00:53:12] Adam Cox: Mmm, I bet. 

[00:53:13] Kyle Risi: Debra, on the other hand, channeled her experience into writing books. She wrote that book titled Albatross, the true story of the woman's survival at sea. It became this massive hit, which really propelled her into the spotlight. She made all the rounds on various shows like Larry King and other major talk shows.

[00:53:28] She became a motivational speaker inspiring others with her resilience and as we know, her book was eventually adapted into a TV movie called Two Came Back, starring the, bless her heart, actress, She's Trying, Melissa Joan Hart.

[00:53:43] Adam Cox: That feels a little patronizing. 

[00:53:45] Kyle Risi: As men's be harsh, not patronizing. 

[00:53:47] 2012, Deborah died at the age of 54, which is very young, So this kind of got me wondering, like her family do seem to be very explicit about not mentioning her cause of death. So I won't mention it on the podcast, just out [00:54:00] of respect, but. Yeah, she died very young and it was very sad. 

[00:54:03] Adam Cox: I wonder how much like PTSD they had from this because this was a horrific event and imagine not easy to get over. 

[00:54:12] Kyle Risi: Yeah, I think if you guys can read between the lines, I'm not sure whether or not that had anything to do with it. It's likely that it could do. But yeah, Adam, that is the story of the Trash Man Yacht sinking. 

[00:54:23] Adam Cox: That is an incredible survival story, and I'm really pleased that, you know, Debra and Brad did survive. 

[00:54:30] Kyle Risi: The right people survived. 

[00:54:31] Adam Cox: Yeah, but I just feel like Other than Meg, poor Meg. Yeah, yeah, sorry, yeah. But I just feel like it could have been avoided, you know what I mean? Yeah. What horrendous circumstances, but it's kind of nice how Debra and Brad were able to kind of stick together for the majority of it. And see each other through. There's some nice elements to that story, I guess.

[00:54:50] Kyle Risi: When I was watching The I Shouldn't Be Alive documentary. It was so intense because shit just kept going from bad to worse to even worse, just minute by [00:55:00] minute. 

[00:55:00] And it made me wonder at what point would I just personally have just been like, Yeah, I'm checking out. I just give up. And honestly, I think I said it earlier on, When the boat sunk and the life raft disappeared into the ocean, I'd be like, Just let go like Jack.

[00:55:14] See ya, bye. 

[00:55:15] Adam Cox: That's it, I'm out. 

[00:55:16] Kyle Risi: Yeah, no thank you. 

[00:55:17] Adam Cox: One question, what happened to the guy that bought the boat, because is he still waiting there like, where's my boat? 

[00:55:22] Kyle Risi: I think what's the news broke, I think. We actually don't know anything about him. We don't know who he is, what his name was, why he purchased the boat, why he called it the Trashman. He has managed to stay completely anonymous, and that's not my boat. I wouldn't call it the Trashman. 

[00:55:38] Um, yeah, I don't think having to endure no food, no water, freezing cold, above all, fucking sharks circling me for days, no thanks, just, yeah, take me, take me now, please, thank you, bye bye, I'll be a canapé, I'll sacrifice myself. 

[00:55:53] So Adam, what would you take away from an experience like this? Could you ever look at the ocean again in the same [00:56:00] way? 

[00:56:00] Adam Cox: I don't think I could. I definitely wouldn't want to go on a boat. 

[00:56:02] Kyle Risi: No. I mean, you have a hard time as it is anyway. You'd probably be like, oh, the boat's sinking. Yeah. I'm not going into the water. And then you would just end it. You just pick up a revolver. 

[00:56:10] My balls don't do well in cold water. They don't float. 

[00:56:14] That's the hardest thing when you're getting into the water. The hardest thing is that moment where your balls just touch the water. That's the bit that men always freak out with, right? 

[00:56:21] Adam Cox: I feel like if you're in this situation, that's the last of your worries. 

[00:56:24] Kyle Risi: I don't know. Men, men are a weird creature. I think honestly that if I was going through something like this, it would completely change how I see my life. Like, to come that close to what feels like certain death, watching hope slip away, bit by bit, with every misfortune. 

[00:56:41] Bloody seeing ships in the distance, knowing that you can't do anything to reach them. Like rain falling down, you can't even get a sip of water. And then one by one, watching all your crewmates die around you.

[00:56:51] It must have just felt like, And by the end, you'll just be completely drained. Not physically, but also mentally, like left with no [00:57:00] hope. 

[00:57:00] Adam Cox: I'd hope that you'd have like a new found respect for life. Yeah. yeah, so I just, I'd hope you would appreciate it and may, I hope they did for, you know, at least, you know, for some time afterwards.

[00:57:12] Kyle Risi: Yeah, for sure. Anyway, that's all for me today. Shall we run the outro for this week? 

[00:57:16] Adam Cox: Yeah.

[00:57:17] Kyle Risi: And that brings us to the end of another fascinating foray into the compendium and assembly of fascinating things. We hope you enjoy this ride as much as we did. 

[00:57:25] Adam Cox: Yeah, that was a really good story. If today's episode sparked your curiosity, do us a favor and follow us on your favorite podcast app.

[00:57:32] It truly makes a world of difference and helps more people discover the show. 

[00:57:36] Kyle Risi: And for our dedicated freaks out there, don't forget the next week's episode is already waiting for you on our Patreon, and it's completely free to access. 

[00:57:42] Adam Cox: And if you want even more, join our certified Freaks tier to unlock the entire archive. Delve into exclusive content and get a sneak peek at what's coming next. We'd love for you to be part of our growing community. 

[00:57:54] Kyle Risi: We drop new episodes every Tuesday and until then remember, the ocean doesn't pick favorites and [00:58:00] neither do the sharks circling beneath.

[00:58:03] We'll see you next time. 

[00:58:04] Adam Cox: See ya.