My mother's fault I'm afraid,' says Douglas. 'She'd argue about not having electricity at the farm and not having proper running water or shoes for the kids, and Dad didn't need that.' The Bartlett Blog is written and produced by the volunteers who staff The Bartlett Maritime Research Centre and Library of National Maritime Museum Cornwall. The 50th Anniversary of the Robertson Family Rescue was written by Lynne Vosper.

One of the daughters, Ann, 18, left the expedition in the Caribbean. In Panama, they took on a young hitchhiker named Robin Williams. José Salvador Alvarenga, who spent 438 days drifting in a small open top boat from Mexico to the Marshall Islands. Day 28 – By morning there was a rough southerly swell with 20-foot waves. Continuous bailing needed. Heading north-east. Day 21 – The sea anchor and float broke away. Douglas rowed after it in a feat of sheer endurance, taking 35 minutes of rowing to retrieve it. That afternoon Douglas saw a green flare often used by submarines on manoeuvres, but nothing came of it.a b Robertson, Douglas (2005). The Last Voyage of the Lucette. Dobbs Ferry, New York: Sheridan House. pp.15–26. ISBN 9781574092066 . Retrieved 8 April 2018. Day 16 – All on board were in very poor physical condition with sores, boils and sunburn. Still raining. Day 29 – This was the day that Dougal caught a five-foot Mako shark, hauled it on board and cut its head off. The severed head closed its mouth on Douglas’s hand and drew blood. He kept the teeth. Progress eastwards was improving.

The Robertson family at the start of their unforgettable voyage in Falmouth (Image: Photograph from ‘The Last Voyage of the Lucette’ by Douglas Robertson) Day 35 – Huge deluge of rain. Filled the containers, tins and plastic bag with water. Enemas for everyone for digestive reasons. Found five holes in the flotation collar.The group only had enough water for ten days and emergency rations for three days. Lyn had grabbed their papers, the logbook and a bag of onions, and they had a kitchen knife, a tin of biscuits, ten oranges, six lemons, half a pound of glucose sweets and flares plus Lyn's sewing box. The life raft was a tight fit for the six of them and they needed to use a bellows to keep it afloat. But the bellows eventually became useless, and they had to keep inflating it by mouth. But after 16 days, even that was ineffective, and the six of them had to crowd into the little dingy. Using the dinghy as a towboat powered by a jury-rigged sail, the group made its way towards the doldrums. They got water from their boat before heading away from their old boat. But running out of water, hoping to find rain there so they could collect drinking water, they sailed their way on. When they ran out of water they started drinking turtle blood. They did so successfully, while catching turtles, dorado, and flying fish to eat. They also ate fruit, bread, and biscuits that they grabbed from the boat. The inflatable raft became unusable after 16 days, so the six people crowded into the three-metre (10') long dinghy with their supplies. They then continued to use the wind and current to their advantage, moving to the northeast towards Central America.

On 15 June 1972, Lucette was holed by a pod of orcas and sank approximately 200 miles west of the Galapagos Islands. The group of six people on board escaped to an inflatable life raft and a solid-hull dinghy with little in the way of tools or provisions. [3] Aleph racing to the fore on light and shifty day They say in yacht racing that when conditions are light, flukey and difficult to predict, it is all about keeping a cool head and avoiding the big results. After setting sail from Falmouth, the Robertsons spent the first 18 months sailing across the Atlantic and stopping at various Caribbean ports. Anne decided to retire from the voyage in the Bahamas and the family welcomed Robin Williams, a 22-year-old Welsh graduate in economics and statistics, to join them on their onward voyage to New Zealand, via the Panama Canal and the Galapagos Islands. Yet, amazingly, they did survive, and their remarkable story is legendary, inspiring a bestselling book – Survive the Savage Sea by Dougal Robertson – an exhibition and a feature film starring Robert Urich and Ali MacGraw (1992).

Day 10 – By now everyone had saltwater boils, there was not much water left and the raft needed to be constantly inflated. For many years after the rescue the Edmamair had been in the care of Edna, but later was brought to Falmouth where she had begun her voyage and was donated to National Maritime Museum Cornwall. On 26 November 2008, Douglas Robertson gave a lecture entitled ‘The Last Voyage of the Lucette’ which was held at the museum. The Museum is celebrating the 50th anniversary of this incredible story of human endurance with a talk by Douglas Robertson. Hear, in his own words, what happened on the 15 th June 1972 and the following 38 days as the family fought to live. Douglas will be joined by the other surviving members of the Robertson family for a panel discussion and an audience Q&A. Further reading Robertson, Douglas (2005), The Last Voyage of the Lucette, Woodbridge, Suffolk: Seafarer Books, ISBN 1-57409-206-5 Hunger and thirst were the greatest problems to be overcome. The group had several cans of water and the few rations they had managed to salvage, which lasted them about six days. They ate flying fish that landed in the raft and the dinghy, and caught dorado but Turtle became the mainstay of their diet. They ate the meat and eggs and drank the blood. The raft was leaking, and they were all sat in water up to their chests, giving them saltwater boils. They used the wind and current to their advantage, heading to the northeast towards Central America.

On Day 17 the bottom of the raft virtually disappeared and they had to transfer to the dinghy. They salvaged what they could from the raft including flotation pieces to be secured to the bow of Ednamair and the canopy to give them shelter.A record-breaking IMOCA fleet in the Transat Jacques Vabre The 2023 Transat Jacques Vabre-Normandie Le Havre featured a delayed start because of extreme weather and then a shortened course, but it still delivered a classic contest for the record-entry 40 IMOCA teams that took the start. Perfection & Pain on a Phénoménale day Just when we thought we'd seen it all in Gran Canaria, the SSL Gold Cup took it to a whole new level on the Golden Day of the 1/8 Finals. Double points meant it all came down to today's performance on the water. Top teams head to Shenzhen this December hoping for USD 200,000 prize Twelve of the world's best match racing skippers from nine countries head to the City of Shenzhen, China next month for the final event of the 2023 World Match Racing Tour. Once on the raft, he and his father came up with the plan that saved their lives: rather than aiming for land, they decided to aim for water – which meant sailing 400 miles north to the Doldrums. Then there is Albert, a male nurse they met in Miami. "Albert was a very nice man, a very friendly man," Douglas recalls, "but he had a motive – me." He says he still feels let down that his father didn't protect him. The book alludes to "inappropriate sexual connotations" but is hazy about specifics. Did Albert make a pass at him. "Yeah, he did." Did he succeed? "Somewhat, yeah," he says, quietly.