Overboard!

In May 2005, Connecticut sailors set out on a five-day crossing of the Gulf Stream toward Bermuda. Captain Tom Tighe, who had made the passage forty-eight times, led the boat, the forty-five-foot Almeisan, with first mate Loch Reidy, who had sailed the route with him on twenty of those trips. Three newcomers joined them: Kathy Gilchrist, 46, Ron Burd, 70, and Chris Ferrer, 34, who wanted to learn offshore sailing.

Four days into the trip, a massive storm hit. Two crew members were swept into the churning sea, while the rest clung to a vessel that was being broken apart by the ocean. Tougias follows both groups at once: those trying to survive on the battered boat and those struggling in the water.

The Coast Guard raced to the stormy scene. Its rescue effort was so unusually hard and dangerous that it was later named the Guard's search and rescue case of the year, chosen from thousands of incidents. Helicopter pilots and rescue swimmers soon faced peril nearly as serious as the people they were trying to save.