MAURICE and MARALYN IS A RIVITING SURVIVAL STORY and a PAGE TURNER by SOPHIE ELMHIRST

A WHALE A SHIP A LOVE STORY

Halfway to New Zealand, Maurice and Maralyn Bailey's boat got struck by a sperm whale and from then on they struggled to survive. This is a riveting story of of how much humans can endure. Yes, they were rescued, which was improbable after so many ships passed them by without seeing them in the inflatable dinghy that had become their home.  At that point they were skeletal and near death, though they had captured turtles and sharks by hand and had also used the flesh as bait to catch fish. 

Their adventure began in March of 1973. Seven years earlier they'd considered giving up their ordinary suburban lives, their average jobs, to sail instead.  To do so they would sell their house, quit their jobs,  move into a rental in the Southhampton port area, take other jobs, and learn to sail by making runs across the English Channel and such. They were sensible as they made progress to their goal.  Well researched, Maralyn stocked the boat with enough food, rationed, to last their journey, most of which they would not be able to get into the raft or dinghy when the time came. Maurice studied books on life at sea and wanted to navigate by the stars as mariners had done before there were radios. They made a plan that would involve sailing the Pacific to New Zealand, going to the Canary Islands, the Caribbean Sea, and also the Galapagos. They knew that they would find themselves alone without another vessel in sight for days and would have to rely on all their knowledge and personal resources. They had to believe they were ready for the adventure. Their first stop was to be the Canary Islands.

But the challenge they could not have expected came when a sperm whale, likely surfacing, hit their boat. The sperm whale was about forty feet long and had a tail that spanned about ten feet.  Their boat, the Auralyn, was a thirty-footer. The collision between boat and whale was likely fatal for the whale who was bloody and in obvious pain when it dove back down into the ocean. The hole in the boat below the water line was not massive but it allowed ocean water to flood in. The couple quickly took action to seal the hole but their efforts didn't work. As the boat rapidly flooded, they realized they would have to get off their boat or sink with it. Quickly they got the life raft and the dinghy loaded with fresh water and other survival supplies, including nautical navigation tools. Maralyn managed to have her camera and diary. The boat sank before their eyes. 

The couple spent 118 days adrift on the Pacific Ocean and the experienced challenged them in every way, physically, mentally, emotionally.   They lived to get another boat and sail again.

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