‘All of a sudden, his boat was sitting on top of our boat’
When you survive a crazy collision that ends with a commercial power boat atop your sailboat, it can get you thinking about miracles.
That’s according to Michael Andorsky, the sailboat helmsman who returned home to his wife in Baltimore with no more than a skinned shin after the crash on Aug. 17 off the shore of Thomas Point Park in the Chesapeake Bay.
As stunning images of the two boats entangled began to take off online, Andorsky said he poured himself a Scotch, ate some crackers and herring and went on about his business.
“I was perfectly, 100 percent A-OK,” said Andorsky, 74, a retired pediatrician. “The question is, is it just a matter of dumb luck or something else? It’s like they say, the expression, there are no atheists in foxholes. When you have a near-miss … you wonder if there was somebody looking over you.”
Andorsky and a friend were on the sailboat, named the Levitation, while seven people were on the commercial charter powerboat, called The Hunter. No one was injured, according to the Coast Guard, which is still investigating the accident.
Chet Clough, owner of Chesapeake Bay Charter Services, said he won’t comment on the crash during the investigation.
“The Coast Guard will make the determination on who’s at fault,” he said.
Andorsky, meanwhile, insists he isn’t to blame.
Conditions were clear on Aug. 17 when he and his friend took out a J/105 sailboat that belongs to the Chesapeake Boating Club in Eastport, where Andorsky is a member.
He said he saw the power boat “way off in the distance” and knew they were probably on a collision course. Motorboats typically give way to a sailboat, so Andorsky said he stayed his course.
And then it was too late.
“I’m waving at the guy, yelling, and all of a sudden, his boat was sitting on top of our boat,” Andorsky said.
Andorsky was sitting in the back of the sailboat by the wheel and his friend was a couple feet in front of him on the port side. He said he believes he and his friend would have been killed if the powerboat struck much closer to the stern of his sailboat. And if the sailboat hadn’t been heeling to starboard, the powerboat could have broken it in half, he said.
After the collision, the people in the charter boat were above them, looking down at them. They asked if everyone was OK.
“I was just thinking that this is ridiculous, but how lucky we both are to be able to talk about it,” he said.
At home, Andorsky let his wife get used to seeing him, looking perfectly unscathed, before telling her what happened.
A friend’s wife put the photo of the collision on Facebook and the phone started ringing. He wrote his sister and brother-in-law to tease them about being powerboaters.
Andorsky expects to go sailing again soon. He has been sailing for about 20 years, ever since he took sailing lessons with his wife and “got bitten by the bug.”
He certainly walked away from the collision with a good sailing story.
But he said, “I hope it’s my last one.”