Debbie Kiley – 5 Days in Shark infested waters
( Deborah scaling kiley 1958 – 2012)
Debbie Kiley was born in Texas in 1958, and from an early age developed a love for sailing. She would often go out with her parents and when she was old enough to get a job, started working as a crew member on various yachts. In 1981 she was the first American woman to complete the Whitbread Round the World Race when she was working as a cook on a South African ship called the Xargo.
In October of 1982, she was hired to be part of the crew for a 58-foot sailing yacht called the “Trashman”. It was a pretty standard trip, taking the yacht from Maine to Florida where Debbie would then transfer back home by land.
After leaving Maine, the crew of 5 made a quick supply stop in Annapolis, Maryland to get ready for the next big section of the voyage. During the passing through the Gulf Stream off the coast of North Carolina, a storm set in and huge waves caused the deck to be filled with water, which quickly broke through and flooded the interior.
The crew could see the ship was going to sink, so boarded the 11-foot-long Zodiac they had with them, which is a small inflatable launch boat. Since the trashman went down quite fast, the crew didn’t have much time to gather supplies and barely had enough water to last the 5 of them no more than 3 days. One of the crew members was badly hurt during the escape to the Zodiac and had numerous cuts from being bounced around the ship.
When the storm settled they finally realized just how serious their situation was, with next to no food and little water to last until rescue, if it ever came. They didn’t have a radio and had no way of reporting they were missing, and it would most likely be days before they missed their check-in and a search party was dispatched.
On the 3rd day, water had run out, and 2 of the crew members became so thirsty they drank seawater. This caused their mental states to break down to the point they both jumped overboard and began to swim, which is when the 2 of them were taken by sharks and eaten alive right in front of the other terrified crew members.
The next day the crew member that was injured in the yacht’s sinking died a very painful death from mass infection of his wounds that had also been regularly splashed with salt water. Debbie recalls saying the lord’s prayer over and over as a way to try and stay sane, but at this point, she was certain they were all going to be dead soon.
On the 5th day, Debbie and the other crew members were spotted by a passing Soviet cargo ship that picked them up and dropped them off to the nearest US authorities. Apart from being seriously dehydrated and shaken up, they were otherwise fine.
Debbie Kiley later wrote a book about her experience called “The True Story of a Woman’s Survival at Sea” which was later turned into a film called “Two Came Back”. Debbie Kiley passed away on August 13, 2012.