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Chapter 1: What happened to Glenn and Ruby on their sailing trip?
I'm Clark Peters, and this is Founding Fathers, An American Dream. In a sweltering room in Philadelphia, Thomas Jefferson writes the Declaration of Independence. In an open valley, George Washington leads a ragtag army against the mighty British Empire. And in New York City, a furious crowd tears down a statue of the king. 250 years ago, the United States of America was born.
But how did the people overthrow British rule? How did they invent a radical new nation? And who lost out along the way? From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is Founding Fathers, An American Dream. The real story of how the U.S. was created and why its legacies still matter. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
It's early afternoon, Sunday, May the 30th, 2021. On the coast of Western Australia, gale force winds churn the waters of Durian Bay into a turbid frenzy. The 40-knot gusts are multidirectional, blowing, it seems, from every angle, from all points of the compass. The result is confusion and chaos, an angry, frothing maelstrom.
Waves barrel into each other, their foamy crests merging and erupting in vertical blasts of spray. Though we are just two nautical miles from shore, the rocky headland is obscured behind a shroud of sea fog. On one of the small islands that guard the entrance to the bay, the glow of a lighthouse perforates the mist. A faint white pinprick in the all-consuming grey.
On calmer days, this stretch of coast is popular with sailors and surfers. But nobody would venture out in conditions like these. And today, there isn't a soul out there. At least, there shouldn't be. But four kilometres out to sea, beyond the reef that skirts the bay's wide mouth, a pair of red life jackets are visible against the side of a surging five-metre swell.
41-year-old Glenn Anderson and his daughter Ruby, just 11 years old. Glenn reaches for his daughter and pulls her into him, seconds before a massive wave rolls over their heads, forcing them both under. They emerge, gasping and disoriented, the whites of their eyes gleaming in the murky half-darkness.
With one hand gripping Ruby's life jacket, Glenn scans the debris that floats around them, searching for something buoyant to hold onto.
I remember I grabbed a wooden oar and kind of tucked that under Ruby's arms to help her float while I was still holding her. And then I also grabbed a dive flipper that was floating nearby.
Glenn shoves one foot into the flipper, which luckily is the right size. Then he lifts his head and begins frantically looking for their boat amid the rollicking waves. There it is, about 10 meters away, lurching up and down on the heavy swell. It's close enough for Glenn to make out what's happening on deck. Their three other crew members emerge from the cabin to find Glenn and Ruby gone.
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Chapter 2: How did Glenn react when they were thrown overboard?
Next thing she knew, she was waking up in the ocean.
Falling overboard will be just the beginning. With his terrified daughter being pushed by the waves in one direction and his boat rapidly drifting away in the other, Glenn will find himself in a terrible position as a captain and an even worse one as a father.
Ruby and I were separated from the rest of the crew without a beacon, without any way of anyone knowing exactly where we were.
I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is Real Survival Stories. It's Saturday, the 29th of May, 2021, just off Rottnest Island near Perth, Western Australia. 41-year-old Glenn Anderson stands on the deck of his anchored yacht, surveying the sky above the Indian Ocean. White, cumulus clouds mass overhead, bruised with dark pockets of rain.
May can be a tricky month here in the southern hemisphere, a transitional period when balmy autumns give way to wet, blustery winters. Glenn scours the horizon, stroking his bearded chin. A stiff breeze is blowing, dappling the sea with jagged whitecaps. Weather reports predict this wind to get stronger, with forecasted gusts of 25 to 30 knots.
Those are rough conditions, sporty, as Glenn likes to refer to them, with perhaps a touch of understatement. Maybe it would be best to stay where they are, anchored to Windward, off the coast of Rottnest Island, and wait for the bad weather to pass.
The option was to either stay at Rottnest on the protected side of the island, or push on and try and get to the next kind of waypoint, which was just north of Durian Bay. The decision was for the crew that we would leave and take on the weather, rather than waiting a few days and waiting. you know, kind of running out of time or having less time to spend elsewhere because we'd waited.
The decision is made democratically as a crew. But as captain, the buck stops with Glenn. When all is said and done, it is he who must weigh the risks against the rewards. And on this particular voyage, Glenn has good reason to be more vigilant. His 11-year-old daughter, Ruby, is one of the crew. Glenn would never put Ruby in a situation beyond her capabilities.
And the last few days sailing have shown that his daughter can more than handle herself at sea. And so Glenn fires up the engine and steers the yacht out of the harbor. As a dad, he tries to strike a balance between emboldening Ruby to be adventurous and providing a voice of caution. It's a line that he's had to learn to walk in his own life.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did Glenn and Ruby face after falling into the ocean?
But on a straightforward voyage like this, they can afford to have a few novices on board. They won't be straying too far from the coastline, maintaining visual contact with land for most of the journey. Barring something completely unexpected, they'll be at Ningaloo in a couple of weeks' time, diving the beautiful coral reef.
It's the middle of the night, about six hours after the Impala II left Rottnest Island. As forecasted, the wind has increased throughout the night. All around the 40-foot yacht, the dark ocean seethes with snarling whitecaps and big thundering breakers. The air on deck is filled with lashing spray and the furious flapping of sails.
The crew takes it in turn to go and watch, grabbing snatches of sleep when they can. But the incessant lurching makes it hard to get any decent rest. Sea sickness has descended and the sound of the crews retching and heaving underscores the relentless pounding of the waves.
I tried to eat something and then vomited it back up again. Ruby hadn't eaten anything, and I was trying to encourage her to drink water, but she was just kind of saying, if I drink it, I'm going to throw it up. So, yeah, we were all kind of low on food and low on energy by the time the morning came around.
At one stage during the night, Glenn notices that the dinghy, which had been attached to the stern, has disappeared, presumably ripped off by the force of the waves.
I came up for my watch rotation and it was gone and the person that was on watch hadn't seen it go. So we weren't quite sure how long it had been gone for. We turned the boat around and went back to try and see if we could find her back at night with swell and darkness. It's pretty hard to find a 10-foot dinghy bobbing around in the ocean.
Eventually dawn appears through cracks in the night sky. The darkness lifts around the yacht, heralding a welcome end to a miserable night. But there's no let up from the rough conditions. The gray sea undulates ahead of them in a rolling expanse of heavy swell, its surface veined with tendrils of white foam. Glenn looks around at the weather-beaten faces of his crew.
As we approached Durian Bay, given regard to the seasickness that was on board, trying to increase the comfort of the crew basically, I decided that we could pull into Durian Bay and sail through the bay rather than outside the reef and then kind of sail around the bay to the other side, around to Sandy Cape.
It just meant that we'd be out of the swell a bit more and hopefully it would be even more comfortable.
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Chapter 4: How did Glenn attempt to rescue Ruby after the yacht capsized?
For a moment, Glenn is helpless. Like a ragdoll, the force of the water pulls his limbs in different directions, tumbling him in the agitated surf. Water thunders in his ears as his mouth and nose fill with brine. A second later, the chaos of the initial impact subsides enough for him to push his head above the surface, gasping and spluttering.
Looking around for Ruby, he spots the flash of a red life jacket and then his daughter's face, her eyes wide with terror. Glenn grabs her and pulls her into him. Then he turns his head in the direction of the boat. It's already some distance away, toppled on its side, rising and falling with a swell. Glenn grits his teeth and starts to kick.
We were trying to swim towards them, but the boat was drifting further downwind from us. It was drifting faster than we could swim.
It's about midday on Sunday, May the 30th, 2021. In the Indian Ocean, off the west coast of Australia, Glenn Anderson and his 11-year-old daughter Ruby are two tiny heads bobbing in the granite gray swell. With frantic, labored strokes, father and daughter pull themselves through the water, back in the direction of their boat.
But the distance between them and the vessel is getting wider every second. Glenn lifts his head above the churning surf. Through the spray, he can just make out the shapes of the other three on board, all of whom were below deck when the wave hit. The yacht must have righted itself after the knockdown, and surely the crew must have realized by now that Glenn and Ruby are in the water.
They'll soon come back for them. But as Glenn watches his yacht rise and fall with the motion of the sea, he spots another monstrous wave roll in.
And then, yeah, I saw the next wave hit the boat. Crew was all up on deck by this point. A similar size wave to what had hit us first came through, knocked the boat down again. They all managed to hold on to the boat somehow. And then the boat righted itself again. But by that point, it had taken on too much water and it just started sinking.
Glenn can only watch in dismay as his beloved boat's sleek white hull drops below the waterline. Before slipping beneath the waves, the three crew members on board fasten their life jackets and hurl themselves into the ocean. Within seconds, all that remains of the Impala II is the tip of her 40-foot mast, and then she is gone, swallowed by the sea.
Glenn and Ruby struggle over to where the other three are bobbing amid the debris of the sunk boat. But there is one member of the crew missing.
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Chapter 5: What injuries did Ruby sustain during the incident?
And I just thought that was really, really brave of her to be able to do that. Her 11-year-old girl was just blown away by her staunchness, I guess.
Having established the extent of Ruby's injuries, the need to reach safety is even more urgent. Glenn looks around. He reckons they're probably about four kilometers from the mainland, about two and a half miles, but separated from shore by a shallow reef. Swimming over it will risk being dashed against sharp rock.
Then, just above the crest of the swell, Glenn catches a glimpse of an island, a flat, rocky protrusion barely shading the horizon. It is their best hope. Before they set off swimming for the island, the shipwrecked sailors activate their EPIRB beacon. This essential piece of kit sends out a distress signal via satellite.
If it works as it should, it will transmit alerts to all search and rescue authorities in the area. Dane straps the EPIRB to his person for safekeeping. Then the five of them start to swim. Given Ruby's condition, Glenn has to hold his daughter with one arm and paddle with the other. From the debris, he has managed to grab a wooden oar, which the 11-year-old now grips for some extra buoyancy.
He's also found a single diving flipper, which helps as he kicks. Even so, in the vicious conditions, it's hard to make progress. It isn't long before Glenn and Ruby have fallen well behind the others.
With me having to tow Ruby, I couldn't really keep up with the way the other crew were swimming. So we kind of came together and spread apart. We came together and spread apart a couple of times just because the sea was so chaotic as well.
Glenn lifts his head. The other three are barely visible now. Tiny specks of red against the dark ocean. There's no use trying to catch up. The distance is too great. The current's too powerful. Time for a change of plan. Glenn glances to his right. There is only one option. He and Ruby are going to have to swim across the reef and into the bay, where the current will be less strong.
From there, they'll have to swim directly for the mainland. Grimacing, Glenn turns his body and, with one arm tight around Ruby's chest, begins swimming towards the reef. The sea here is even rougher, as the waves break against the shallow rock, churning the water into a deadly whirlpool.
There was a couple of times that a big breaking wave was coming over, and I'd say to Ruby, OK, ready for a breath hold, right? I'd breath me out, and we'd dunk under there. the way and let it pass over, let it roll us. And then we pop up the other side and then repeated that a few times until we were through the part where the waves were breaking on the reef.
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Chapter 6: How did Glenn and Ruby signal for help after the accident?
I don't remember ever once thinking, oh, what if there's sharks or the shark's going to be attracted to my blood or anything like that. I was just totally locked in on keeping Ruby's head above water and trying to get us to the shore or get us rescued.
On they go. Glenn periodically looks up to see how much further to shore. But there remains a yawning chasm between them and the land. He grits his teeth and keeps going. Another hour passes. At some point, a rescue plane flies low over the bay. It doesn't seem to spot Glenn and Ruby, but its presence lifts morale.
It suggests the EPIRB has done its job in alerting the authorities to their plight. Maybe the others have already been rescued.
As soon as we saw the jet coming over, that gave us such a boost, knowing that, okay, they know we're here at least. People know that we need help, and help is here. And I said to her, look, they're here for us. They've come to help us. They'll see us, don't worry, and there'll be a boat coming to pick us up soon. So that was the best-case scenario. So that's what I presented to Ruby at the time.
As they swim, Glenn spots boats in the distance, chugging out across the bay. He tries calling for help, but his voice is drowned out by the crashing waves. Judging by the direction the vessels are heading, it seems there would be rescuers think that father and daughter are on the other side of the reef, not here in the bay. Glenn has no way of alerting them to their mistake.
It is an added torment to know that rescue is both close at hand and impossibly out of reach. Meanwhile, Ruby is beginning to feel ice cold in Glenn's arms.
I just kept saying to her, look, either we're going to get picked up or we're going to swim to shore. So either way, we're going to be fine. You just have to hang in there and stay with me.
Glenn whispers encouragement into Ruby's ears. But after nearly four hours submerged in cold water, it seems increasingly likely that his daughter is becoming hypothermic.
Through various trainings and jobs that I've had, I'm well aware of the symptoms of hypothermia as well. So I was kind of watching her progress through that and knowing that she hadn't really eaten or drunk much for the last 24 hours. So I knew she wouldn't have a lot of energy reserves to help get through a situation like that.
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Chapter 7: What was the outcome of the rescue operation for Glenn and Ruby?
And I said, yeah, mate, you're taking away my glory. What are you doing? And then, yeah, he kind of jokes aside, let's get everyone on the boat and pulled us up.
Glenn pushes Ruby up into the rescuer's outstretched arms. Then he climbs up after her and collapses onto the deck of the boat. Almost immediately, the emotion that he's been keeping at bay surges to the surface.
It wasn't until that point where I'd got on the boat and got to process that we were okay, we were rescuing Ruby, was going to get the medical help she needed, that I had just this emotional release and, yeah, just break down on the boat as we were going back to the harbour. But it was just such a combination of Just relief for that situation to have been over.
I knew Ruby was in good hands and that we were going to be okay.
It's a few hours later. After being picked up by Sea Rescue, Glenn and Ruby were promptly airlifted and flown to hospital in Perth. Upon arrival in the emergency room, medical staff checked their vital signs and took blood tests. As well as her broken leg, Ruby was indeed suffering the effects of hypothermia. Fortunately, no lasting damage was done.
Doctors informed Glenn that he is displaying symptoms of starvation. Such was the toll that the four-hour swim took on his body. They also learn about the fate of the others. Apparently Dane and the two other crewmates were picked up by Sea Rescue two hours before Ruby and Glenn were found.
The rescuers hadn't anticipated that I would try and swim to shore. They were looking in the area where the debris from the boat was floating and kind of near where my other crewmates had been rescued. So they assumed that I'd be in a similar kind of area, whereas I'd been frantically kicking myself mostly towards the shore.
Ironically, they might have been rescued sooner had they stayed put. But then maybe the exertion helped stave off the worst effects of hypothermia. There's ultimately no way of knowing, and no point dwelling on what-ifs. All that matters is that they're safe. After leaving hospital, Glenn and Ruby return home to Busselton. Life returns to normal. Except, in many small ways, it doesn't.
For Glenn, the afterglow of survival casts everything in a new light.
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Chapter 8: How did Glenn cope with the aftermath of the accident?
Because I just think if I hadn't, then I would just wallow in that. If that was the last thing I did in sailing, was sink that boat, then I just wouldn't have ever kind of got past it. It would have just been something that hung in the back of my mind for the rest of my life.
So yeah, to get back on the horse, the buck to your kind of thing and go and do that trip was super important for me, I think.
As for Ruby, her next time on the water came six months after the accident. Undeterred by her frightening ordeal, she enthusiastically agreed to join her dad on a short sailing trip off the coast near Busselton.
made sure to regularly check up on her to ensure she felt confident enough to carry on and to glenn's immense pride his daughter's reply was always the same part way through i said to her how are you feeling and she was feeling like a seasick there was there was a bit of swell around and a bit of wind and she said apart from feeling a bit seasick i feel safe and comfortable
And that for her to say that she felt safe again, that absolutely blew my mind. And even when I think about that moment now, it brings tears to my eyes because I was so blown away that she was okay with that. And it just meant so much to me that she would put her trust in me again after what had happened and didn't hold that against me.
And yeah, that just meant the world to hear those words out of her mouth at that point in time.
Next time on Real Survival Stories, can someone, quite literally, come back from the dead? On a winter's evening in New Hampshire in 2011, David Dwyer is at home in his study when he notices that his wife Kelly hasn't come back from her walk in the woods. Concerned, he straps on his snowshoes, grabs his torch, and heads out to look for her. But the situation is more terrible than he can know.
Because Kelly isn't merely lost. She has been in an awful accident. She has fallen through the ice into freezing cold water, barely clinging on to life, submerged up to her neck. As Kelly slips into a hypothermic stupor and her heart slows to a standstill, David will have to perform heroics to reach her in time. How will he get her out without risking his own life too?
And what will be the consequences of Kelly's hours spent trapped beneath the ice? That's next time on Real Survival Stories. Listen today without waiting and without ads by joining Noisa Plus.
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