Against All Odds
The Ferry
In 1999, I was living in Cebu, Philippines working for an American corporation.
On most week nights my wife and I would get together at our favorite watering hole, the Sand Trap, and have a few quiet beers with our expat friends.
It was the week after Christmas and the weather was lovely. A warm tropical breeze rustled the palm fronds on the veranda as we sat under a full moon.
The week before, the weather had been terrible, and sadly, a Philippine ferry sank en route from Cebu to Panay with over 650 passengers aboard. Fortunately, most of the passengers had been rescued, but many were still unaccounted for.
The news was tragic, but not uncommon in that part of the world as local ferries were routinely overloaded, badly maintained, and lacked adequate safety measures.
While sitting at the outdoor bar and talking with our friends, we remarked about the tragedy and shook our heads once again as to the unfortunate events that seemed to always plague the holiday season.
As we sipped on our beers, a young woman in her late twenties sitting nearby had overheard us and spoke out to no one in particular…
“I was on that ferry.”
Her name was Anna and this is her story:
Anna was Australian and lived in Cebu working for a non-profit organization which established cooperatives helping local farmers and their communities become financially empowered. She wanted to see and experience as much of the Philippine Islands as she could during her two-year assignment, so she and two other Australians friends decided to spend the Christmas holidays on the resort island of Boracay.
On the evening of December 22nd, she boarded a ferry with her friends, Sara and Michelle, for the overnight crossing to the big island of Panay on the first leg of their journey. The crossing would take about twelve hours up the Visaya Straits to Iloilo City. The weather was forecasted to be clear for the holiday weekend and the ferry was scheduled to arrive at Iloilo City a couple of hundred miles north of Cebu City the next day. From there they would take a bus up the Panay coast and catch a banca boat, a large out-rigger canoe, to make the crossing to the popular tourist destination of Boracay.
The ferry ride to Panay was uncomfortable, with choppy seas and rain which were supposed to clear by the following day. Anna and her friends shared a small sparse cabin with bunk beds, but the weather conditions that night made it hard to sleep. Anna finally dozed off in the early hours.
At 5:45 am, the women were awakened by a jarring screech of metal. The ferry had hit a rock off the coast of Bantayan island, roughly 50 miles southeast of their destination.
Power on the ferry was interrupted and all the lights went out. Pulling out a small flashlight from her backpack, Anna opened the door to her cabin and stepped into the corridor to see if there were any crew members giving directions. Instead, she saw panicked passengers rushing past her as they ran from their cabins in terror. Quickly stepping back into her cabin, she realized what she saw.
Suddenly, the ferry shuddered and began to list to starboard, sinking stern first.
With the aid of her flashlight, the women were able to locate three life vests, two adult sizes and one child size. Being the smaller of the three, Anna volunteered to take the smaller life vest. It would be fine as they assumed there would be lifeboats on deck and the life vests were just an added precaution. The women grabbed water bottles from their backpacks and made their way up on deck. They were not prepared for the chaos that greeted them. Some of the crew had been able to get the elderly and children into the lifeboats, but it was immediately apparent there weren’t enough lifeboats for everyone. Anna and her friends put on their life jackets and ran toward the railing. They decided to jump overboard, swim to a lifeboat and hang on for dear life.
The moment the ferry began sinking was surrealistic. People on deck were on their knees praying, while others jumped into the ocean.
The lifeboats slipped into the strong current of the Visaya Strait, pulling Anna and her friends away from the sinking ferry. Anna began to lose her grip and fought to keep ahold of the side of the boat. Fellow passengers struggled to catch hold of her arms. Before long, Anna began drifting away from the boat. Anna’s friends fought to grab hold of her, but she was caught in a current and was quickly pulled away despite her efforts to swim back to the boat.
Alone in the dark she drifted farther and farther away from the ferry, the lifeboats, and her friends.
As dawn broke, she found herself completely alone in the ocean hoping and praying that someone would see her. She looked at her wristwatch, it was now 6:30 am. Her entire life had changed in only 45 minutes.
The water was salty and her little life jacket provided enough buoyancy for her to stay afloat. The hours slowly passed. Bobbing up and down with the swells, the small life vest chaffed her neck and chin. The tropical sun was strong and the reflection on the water accelerated the beginning of a sunburn. She floated through an area of sea lice and began to feel the needle-like stings on her legs.
By mid-day, the wind had subsided, and intermittent rain squalls were a welcome relief. Trying desperately not to spill what little water she had left; she was able to catch a little of the rainwater in her plastic bottle she had tied to her life vest.
Completely exhausted after twelve hours in the water, Anna began to cry as the sun started to set. She knew no one would see her in the dark. She had drifted further and further from where the ferry had sunk and began to wonder what had become of her friends. Had the lifeboat been found? Were her friends safe?
Hopelessness, abandonment, and sheer terror engulfed her.
Anna reflected on the events that brought her to the Philippines. She was so excited to have had the opportunity to live and work in a developing nation. She was going to make a difference. She was looking forward to personal growth, meeting new people, and having the experience of a lifetime. She started to laugh as she thought this was not the kind of life experience she was planning to have.
Looking up at the clear night sky, she recited the Lord’s Prayer and prayed someone would find her. The lulling of the waves and the solitude brought a strange sense of peace to her as she drifted in and out of sleep.
Morning arrived as the sun began to rise in the East. She had now been in the water for 24 hours and was experiencing the effects of dehydration and hypothermia.
A pod of dolphins came into view, and she marveled at their beauty and grace. As a young girl she dreamed of swimming with the dolphins. She had been to a marine park when she was ten and was thrilled at sight of the animal trainers who rode astride their backs looking like they were driving a team of wild horses.
“If only I could harness your power and you could take me home,” she thought.
She was suddenly awakened from her fantasy by the roaring sound of helicopter rotors. Looking up she saw a Philippine Military aircraft circling above her. Her heart leapt at the thought of rescue.
The Helicopter came to hover above her, and a crew member lowered a safety line down to her.
The line danced before her and she was finally able to grab a hold with all the strength she had left. When the crew determined she had a grip on the cable, they began to winch her up toward the open doors. As she was lifted out of the water and meters above the waves, she was too weak to hold on and fell back into the sea.
Anna looked up with hope as it appeared a crew member was preparing to dive in the water. She took a deep breath and mustered the strength to try again. Without warning, the helicopter began to climb and flew off to the east.
Watching the helicopter fly away, Anna began to scream, “Don’t leave!”
“Where are you going!?!”
“Don’t leave me!!!”
She began to sob.
Anna floated alone in the sea and watched the helicopter disappear into the early morning sun. After she ran out of tears, she was left fully spent. Her mind was flooded with thoughts. Terrifying thoughts of being eaten by sharks. Fanciful thoughts of being rescued by a pod of dolphins. Thoughts of washing ashore on a desert island. Anna remembered the quiz she had taken asking what five books she would have if stranded on a desert island. She was too tired to remember what she had chosen. She laughed out loud. Books would be the last things she would bring to a desert island.
Sense had returned to Anna. She made up her mind that she wouldn’t give up. A helicopter had found her once. They could find her again. “I won’t give up!” She repeated her mantra until once again exhaustion took over and she fell into sleep.
By mid-day Anna filled her time with thoughts of Australia and her family. She made lists in her head of countries she had visited, concerts she had been to, and boys she had dated. She fantasized what she would have to eat when she was back on dry land. Eventually Anna ran out of lists and began to watch the waves. By late afternoon, she had lost consciousness.
Anna was dreaming and felt as if she was being pulled apart. She saw weathered hands lifting her out of the ocean and felt heavy and broken as she was laid to rest on rough wooden boards. Squinting as she looked up into the glare of the setting sun, she saw two Filipino fishermen staring down at her.
One of the men put a water bottle to her lips and another put a folded jacket under her head. Neither of them spoke.
Anna couldn’t tell if she was dreaming or if she had died. As she came around, she groggily assessed her situation and soon realized she was on a small Filipino fishing vessel.
A woman appeared with a wet cloth and cooled her sunburned face and wrapped her in a blanket. One of the men brought her a small bowl of cold rice. Anna was famished and devoured it no time.
Laying back into a pile of fishing nets on the narrow deck, she fell into a dreamless sleep.
When Anna again awoke, she found herself on a cot in a small medical clinic on Bantayan Island.
A nurse was soon at her side, and Anna bombarded her with questions. “Where was she? What happened? How did she get here?”
The nurse explained that local fishermen had found her unconscious in the sea and had brought her to the clinic. Anna had more questions, but the nurse simply told her there was time for more questions later, but now it was time for her to rest.
Anna slept for what seemed like an eternity. The next morning the nurse came in and told her the Doctors arranged for her to be airlifted to a hospital in Cebu City.
Later that day as she was put aboard a Philippine Coast Guard helicopter she began to cry and realized she had received the best Christmas gift of her life.
It was in fact, her life.
Epilogue:
Of the 650 passengers who were on the ferry that night, miraculously only nine lost their lives.
The Philippine Military helicopter she thought had abandoned her was critically low on fuel and could not remain on station any longer. The crew was devasted by their inability to save her but were jubilant when hearing of Anna’s rescue.
Her friends Sara and Michelle were rescued by the Philippine Coast Guard.
Michelle immediately returned to Australia, but Anna and Sara stayed in Cebu to finish their assignment. They finally made it to Boracay the following year but took a commercial flight.
Anna currently resides in Melbourne, Australia with her family and still works for non-profit organizations supporting developing nations in the region.
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