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By CHELSEA GORROW | The Daily Astorian
Posted: Monday, July 11, 2011 10:13 am

It started with a bang.

Three days later, the Merrells’ lives changed forever.

Donald Merrell, a Seaside native who works at Pacific Way Bakery and Cafe in Gearhart, was sailing with his dad, his dad’s wife, his brother and the family cat.

They had been living aboard the vessel off the coast of Baja, Mexico, when his father, Douglas, discovered he had cancer.

That’s when the family decided to head back to Oregon.

“My dad needed to come up here and get some treatment,” Donald Merrell said. “We were headed on what they call the clipper route, which takes five to six weeks, going east with the trade winds, catching it and going north to Oregon.”

The Merrells left Baja June 14.

“The weather systems didn’t really work out for us the way we planned. Because of the weather, we had to turn east when we weren’t planning on it,” he said. “That actually ended up being a blessing because it’s what made us run into our friends who saved us – the freighter.”

The Merrells heard a bang after having been in the open waters for two weeks.

“We didn’t have any damage reports and we didn’t see any water coming into the boat,” he said. “But we lost steering one night about 2 a.m. The cables for the wheel had broke.”

The family installed an emergency tiller to regain control but, Merrell said, it made the problem worse, cracking the fiberglass around the rudder.

“We started making distress calls when the water started coming in,” he said.

Within 10 minutes, their calls were answered by the OOCL Guangzhou, a Chinese freighter ship.

The ship made its way next to the Merrells’ boat, which was no easy task to line the two up.

The family had 20 minutes to gather their belongings, including their cat, Dinky Dink, and made their way on board the Chinese ship.

“They sent two engineers down to our boat and they determined there was really nothing they could do. We didn’t see it sink, but it was taking on water and we know it lasted a day, if not less,” Donld Merrell said.

“There were a couple of things that happened that just made us say, ‘Wow, this was fate.’ We had to come back in east and we weren’t ready to do that, as well as the Guangzhou. They were off course because of weather, too, trying different speeds for weather and whatnot.

“We felt really lucky that we ran into them. Otherwise, we’d be in a life raft and who knows how long we’d have been out there. It’s an empty part of the ocean there,” Merrell said.

Aboard the freighter, the Merrells became close with the captain and crew, all becoming one big family, Merrell said, with nothing but admiration and gratefulness for the ship that saved their lives.

The bang they heard was later determined, with the help of the crew of the OOCL Guangzhou, to be debris, believed to be from the tsunami in Japan.

The Merrells sailed to Honolulu with the Guangzhou, where they were picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard and flown back to Oregon.

“The captain and crew went above and beyond their call of duty. They were nice and generous, and we felt like family,” Donald Merrell said. “But sometimes when things aren’t going your way, there is a reason for it.”

Merrell’s father is scheduling treatment with Oregon Health & Science University for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The Merrells did not have insurance on their sailboat, as of last year. Douglas Merrell has lived aboard the boat for 11 years. All of his possessions were onboard.


source...

Just me, but this entire story has massive holes in it.

For instance, if they were sailing just of Baja, just how far did they sail East, after

"They had been living aboard the vessel off the coast of Baja, Mexico, when his father, Douglas, discovered he had cancer."

Not to mention, just how did he discover he had cancer? Sheesh.

CHELSEA GORROW ... from the The Daily Astorian ... couldn't be ...

Your so picky...