News

Sailboat trip to the Caribbean ends in Rockport the day it began

What was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime for a Maine couple ended the same day it began after their sailboat capsized in Rockport, Mass.

Stephen Davis and Liza Constable had planned an adventure at sea that was supposed to last more than a year, slated to end in the Caribbean.

"We bought a used boat in New Hampshire a couple years ago and have been fixing it up ever since, planning a voyage, we were going out to the South Pacific to the Panama Canal," said Davis.

However, on the day they set sail, seasick and struggling to maintain control of the boat, the couple eventually lost control and crashed into the jetty at Rockport Harbor.

"I could see all of a sudden, 'Oh my gosh there’s the jetty and we are going to crash,' and we did," said Davis.

The two scrambled to grab as many of their belongings as they could as the boat began to sink.

"I’m looking overboard and thinking, 'Ok, I’m just going to have to jump in," said Constable.

Instead of jumping in, they were able to climb up on the jetty. Rockport's harbormasters said if they hadn't made it off the boat on their own, the wreckage may have gone unnoticed.

"They would have been out there all night if they had not gotten off the boat," said Scott Story, a Rockport Harbormaster.

"That’s unusual that someone can step ashore in the sea conditions that were out there," said Rosemary Lesch, a Rockport Harbormaster.

Just three weeks ago, a man died after a boat he was in capsized near Straightsmouth Island.

“These types of incidents put us all, make us aware that we need to research and find the cause of all of this," said Lesch.

Almost everything Davis and Constable own was destroyed, but they both realize that, given the circumstances, they were lucky.

“I don’t want to go sailing for a little while," said Constable.

Despite the setback, the couple still plans on heading south, only this time, they'll be doing it by train.