66 DAYS ADRIFT

For Immediate Release

 

 

February 21/05: It's a sailor's paradise. Skimming along the vast Pacific, Bill and Simonne Butler have everything they need aboard their trim sloop Siboney - each other, and a world of possibilities ahead.  One beautiful evening, the two are enchanted by a pod of pilot whales swimming alongside the boat - but then events take a terrifying turn. Without warning, and seemingly with coordinated intent, the whales attack, ramming the hull until it splits, sending the craft beneath the waves.  Abandoning ship in a panic, the Butlers find themselves watching their beloved ship sink, drifting helplessly, with only a few hastily grabbed provisions to sustain them, in a flimsy six-foot raft.

 

A testament to human endurance, 66 DAYS ADRIFT  ranks alongside other true-life survival stories like Touching the Void, Alive! and Into Thin Air. Reconstructed from meticulously kept (and miraculously salvaged) logs, Butler's harrowing account of survival aboard the raft, dubbed "Last Chance," with little to keep them alive or protect them, stranded hundreds of miles from Central America's Pacific Coast, is nothing short of unbelievable.

 

Simonne, who had been reluctant to join Bill on his dream quest of circumnavigating the globe, now blames him bitterly for their desperate plight.  Now, ravaged by hunger and thirst, harassed daily by sharks, pummeled by storms and baked by the sun, the troubled couple struggle to work together and survive. As they cope to maintain their sanity, they reevaluate their marriage, their religious beliefs, their ties to their families and to each other. 

 

Near to starvation, they subsist on raw turtle and fish. Two times, freighters pass within almost shouting distance of the dinghy, but the decks appear deserted.  After the third freighter passes and they fire off two flares without acknowledgement, they are convinced they are invisible. To lighten their cargo, they toss precious blankets overboard - as well as a loaded pistol, which would have made a perfect signaling device.

 

Then there are moments when the couple's expressive love seems all the more tender under the circumstances. At times, their banter is playful and flirty. They find solace watching birds, remembering the love of their children, watching the stars, reaffirming their love for each other, and convincing each other and themselves that they can - and must - survive.

 

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For publicity or to arrange author interviews, please contact
Doug Blair at 905-430-5134 or by email at dougb@mcgrawhill.ca