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Richard and Evelyn Shanklin were retirees and experienced sailors planning on taking a roughly 50-mile open-water journey from Spanish Wells, in the Bahamas, to the Abaco Islands
However, weather and a series of technical issues forced them to abandon ship when their boat capsized
PEOPLE detailed the story in an April 1991 article
Richard and Evelyn Shanklin had grand plans to set off on a roughly 50-mile honeymoon cruise through the West Indies in their sailboat in March 1991.
The vessel's name,Go For It, offered insight into the personalities of the adventurous couple, who had gotten married just two months prior after meeting at a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., sailing club.
Richard, then 51, was a retired clothing salesman, while Evelyn, then 49, was a former chemical company employee. After retirement, the two were more focused on traveling the globe by navigating the high seas. Sailing was a frequent pastime for both, with their planned open-water trip to the Abaco Islands from Spanish Wells, in the Bahamas, looking fairly straightforward.
Until, that is, the wind shifted — turning what should have been a 10-hour trip into a far more arduous journey.
"Everything was going fine," Richard told PEOPLE in April 1991, until suddenly, a gust of wind hit the boat forcefully.
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Even after cranking the engine, he said they "were barely moving."
Then, the navigational equipment began to malfunction, and they realized that they "might not make it to the Abacos by dark." By the time the boat struck a coral reef at 11 p.m., they realized they might not make it at all.
As PEOPLE detailed at the time, water began rushing in, making its way up to the couple's thighs as they prepared to abandon the sailboat and hop onto their eight-foot emergency dinghy.
They put on life vests, with Evelyn gathering supplies, while Richard tried to put out a Mayday call on the boat's radio — but that wasn't working either.
Evelyn recounted how the two then attempted to send distress signals on a portable two-way radio. ''Come back, come back,'' she remembered someone saying.
She relayed the boat's position, but before she heard anything back, the boat began to sink, with Richard telling PEOPLE it "went straight down."
As reported in 1991, Evelyn, then standing in the stern, "was catapulted into the air, striking the mast," before being caught in the ropes of the boat and choking on salt water.
As she told PEOPLE, she began to calm down, assuming the worst was soon to come: "You relax when you know you're going to die and there's nothing you can do about it."
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But Richard, undeterred, frantically worked toward his wife, tearing the ropes away and untangling her. He had left the dinghy behind, however, and the two watched as it slid away into the ocean.
Soon, they were left with nothing but their life jackets and an air-filled boat fender, which Evelyn strapped herself to. Her husband, meanwhile, strapped himself to her, as both did little more than bob in the water. At one point, they even saw a helicopter pass by overhead — but it did not see them.
Rather than being scared, Evelyn recalled feeling "angry."
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"Here I was starting out a new life, and it was going to be taken away," she told PEOPLE.
Minutes stretched into hours as Evelyn focused on ensuring her wedding ring didn't slip off her fingers, now waterlogged and wrinkled.
Richard focused on the future, telling his new wife, "You promised me 39 years."
"Can I yell at you every day for 39 years?" she replied.
The jokes didn't last, however, with Evelyn at one point begging Richard to cut her loose so he could attempt to swim to shore. "You can let go," he told her, ''but I'm not letting go of you."
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With the dawn of a new day, the couple found hope in the form of another helicopter. This time — 24 hours after they set out and now with sharks visibly circling beneath them — the rescuers in the helicopter saw them, too.
Within minutes, they found themselves safe and aboard a Coast Guard cutter, two miles off the coast of the Abacos, and quickly flown to Miami.
They were too weak to stand, but without any major injuries. After leaving the hospital, they checked into a hotel and watched the following morning's sunrise.
As Evelyn told PEOPLE, "We're going to stay on land for a while," adding, "we're going to have fun — but we'll go by train."
Read the original article onPeople
