A Whale Sank Their Yacht - They Survived 117 Days Adrift

Most people would panic if a whale bumped their boat. Maurice and Maralyn Bailey watched one punch a hole clean through their 31-foot yacht Auralyn on March 4, 1973, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean about 300 miles northeast of the Galapagos Islands. Within minutes, the boat was going under - and they were climbing into an inflatable life raft with a few tins of food, some water, and not much else.

The Dream That Became a Nightmare

The Baileys had left Southampton, England in June 1972, bound for New Zealand. They were experienced sailors chasing a retirement dream - sell everything, buy a yacht, see the world. They made it safely through the Panama Canal in February 1973 and were heading toward the Galapagos when a sperm whale surfaced directly beneath them and struck the hull. The damage was catastrophic. The Auralyn sank within minutes.

117 Days of Bare-Handed Survival

What followed was one of the longest survival ordeals in maritime history. The Baileys drifted on a small rubber raft and a damaged dinghy, exposed to sun, storms, and constant danger. They developed a brutal routine:

• Catching sea turtles by hand and eating the raw meat
• Spearing fish with improvised tools made from safety pins
• Trapping rainwater in containers to drink
• Fighting off sharks that circled the raft daily, sometimes bumping it from below

They went through periods of severe dehydration, sunburn, and near-starvation. Several ships passed in the distance without spotting them. At one point their raft began to deflate, and they had to patch it while floating in shark-filled water.

Rescue at 1,500 Miles

On June 30, 1973, after 117 days adrift, the Korean fishing vessel Weolmi 306 spotted them and pulled them aboard. By then, the Baileys had drifted roughly 1,500 miles from where the whale had sunk their yacht. They were emaciated, sunburned, and covered in saltwater sores - but alive.

A Book and a Second Voyage

The Baileys returned to England and wrote "117 Days Adrift", a detailed account of their ordeal published in 1974. The book title actually contains a small error - the actual duration was closer to 118 days, but early news reports said 117 and the name stuck. Remarkably, the experience did not end their love of sailing. They eventually bought another boat and returned to the sea.