An 86-year-old sailor who spent nearly two months lost at sea with his one-eyed dog says he has no regrets about the ill-fated 5,000-mile Pacific adventure — because it was the final item on his bucket list.
Harry Blodgett and his four-legged first mate, Sasha, were miraculously rescued nearly 500 miles off the San Diego coast last month after disappearing during a voyage from Oregon to the South Pacific.
The elderly mariner had set sail aboard his boat, the Willow Wind, from Astoria, Ore., in August, hoping to reach Pago Pago in American Samoa, roughly 5,000 miles southwest of California.
Friends tried to talk him out of the ambitious voyage, particularly after Blodgett gave up his home, sold off his belongings and moved aboard the sailboat, the New York Times reported.
But the determined sailor wasn’t about to abandon his dream.
Things went sideways almost immediately. Blodgett said he lost his sails just two weeks into the journey and was nearly out of fuel, leaving him at the mercy of the Pacific.
Still, he insisted he wasn’t frightened.
“I wasn’t afraid at all,” Blodgett told the Times from his hospital bed in San Diego. “The boat was doing a great job.”
Despite rough seas and brutal winds, the elderly sailor held off activating his emergency position-indicating radio beacon for weeks.
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“I was just like a rag doll inside the hull of the boat getting banged against all the furniture and the roof of the inside of the cabin,” Blodgett said.
When friends hadn’t heard from him in over 60 days, the Coast Guard was contacted on October 24 to help find him, per the agency.
The search gained a ᑕriᩚtiᩚcal break three days later, when a Coast Guard station in Alameda received an emergency beacon alert from the Willow Wind on Oct. 27.
Aircraft and helicopter crews were sent out to help locate the missing mariner as officials called on nearby vessels for assistance.
Blodgett’s boat was eventually spotted, and the motor vessel Grand Orion arrived at the scene early the following morning to rescue the pair.
Coast Guard Cmdr. Jason Nguyen said Blodgett and Sasha were alive on the deck of the sailboat and appeared to be holding up surprisingly well given their ordeal.
Blodgett said the pair survived on freeze-dried food and what he described as “stinky” water.
And despite the harrowing experience, he hasn’t abandoned his adventurous streak.
“That trip across the Pacific was the last item on my bucket list,” he told the outlet. “You shouldn’t give up on your dreams or your goals.”
By the time they were found, the sailor and his furry companion had traveled more than 1,000 nautical miles during their months-long ordeal, according to SeaRoutesNav.
His original voyage from Astoria to Pago Pago would typically take between four and seven weeks, depending on the boat, weather and route, according to maritime safety data.
