‘Sumatra II’ Skipper Recovering from Loss

"I think the actual grieving over the loss of Sumatra may come later," explains Dr. Jerry Morgan, 71, whose beloved Trintella 53 sank late last month in near-cyclone conditions off Australia. "For now, I’m doing okay, although I’m still having trouble sleeping and can’t seem to shake the nightmares."

Now safely back home in the Bay Area, Jerry is resigned to accepting the loss of his uninsured yacht and getting on with his life — especially since he knows that he came very close to drowning during his heroic rescue by the crew of the 320-ft container ship Scarlett Lucy.

We can honestly say, we don’t recall ever running into Jerry over the years when he wasn’t grinning ear-to-ear, and his eternally upbeat attitude will undoubtedly serve him well as he transitions back into the mainstream after six wonderful years of cruising Central America and the South Pacific. During that time he shared his adventures with a wide variety of crew members, all of whom were horrified to learn of Sumatra II‘s sinking, after she was slammed by a particularly ferocious 30-ft wave while en route to Brisbane, Australia, from New Caledonia. The bashing apparently exacerbated damage done to the sloop’s keel when she dragged anchor onto a reef in a New Caledonian lagoon. Jerry says that assuming the gouges in the keel were superficial, and deciding not to haul her immediately, were crucial mistakes that could easily have cost him and his Kiwi crewman, Stewart McCreadie, 38, their lives.

This is yet another case where a satphone played a cruicial roll. When Sumatra II began rapidly taking on water, Jerry activated his 406 EPIRB, then called Coast Guard Alameda directly with his exact lat-long coordinates. Because the location was too far offshore for a helicopter evac, the Australian RCC (Rescue Coordination Centre) launched a series of five fixed-wing aircraft that assisted with the rescue effort. Look for a complete report on Sumatra II‘s sad fate in the July edition of Latitude 38.