Man safe after 29 hours at sea

By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer

John Ruiz III, badly sunburned, hungry and eager to talk to his family and girlfriend, clambered off the little sport fishing boat that had rescued him after 29 hours at sea, and walked up the Ke'ehi Lagoon boat ramp in his shorts.

John Ruiz stands on solid ground after Tim Wong rescued him from the ocean. Ruiz said the battery on his boat died. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

Ruiz, 45, who drifted away from Portlock at 10:30 a.m. Saturday in a disabled 17-foot Glaspar outboard motor boat, was rescued at 3:30 p.m. yesterday 10 miles off Barbers Point.

When he hailed the boat being driven by Tim Wong of 'Aina Haina, Ruiz had been paddling a surfboard for five hours in a desperate attempt to reach shore after abandoning his boat.

"I felt like my arms were going to fall off," he said.

"He asked, 'Can I come aboard your boat,'" Wong said. Wong took Ruiz aboard, and soon learned his new passenger was a fellow Kalani High School graduate.

Ruiz said he actually thought about not troubling Wong. "I almost didn't flag him down. He looked like he was going fishing, to catch something, and I didn't want to interfere with that," Ruiz said.

Once aboard, Ruiz accepted a beer from Wong, "and I had some dried fish he gave me, and some kangaroo jerky. It was great. Anything would have been great. Then I laid back and closed my eyes until he could catch a fish. He did."

The rescue brought to an end a 16-hour night and day search by the U.S. Coast Guard, which sent up H-65 helicopters and a C-130 aircraft, as well as two auxiliary small planes, and by the Honolulu Fire Department, which launched its Air One helicopter, a rescue boat and a fire truck from Hawai'i Kai.

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Leaving boat not always best The decision on whether to stay with a disabled boat should be made by those aboard on a case-by-case basis, a Coast Guard official said yesterday. But Mike Wood, quartermaster first class and a Coast Guard navigator, added that people have been found by the Coast Guard after 10 days adrift in a boat, and might not have survived that long on a surfboard. A boat is a bigger target for rescuers, he said. Wood said Ruiz "is a classic example" of the need for good communication devices. Ruiz was picked up by another boater while trying to paddle a surfboard to shore from his disabled boat. "Some people get lucky," Wood said. "Some people don't."

At that point, he could have just jumped overboard with his surfboard and easily paddled ashore, but Ruiz decided to stay with the boat, sure that someone on shore or in the water would see him and come to his aid.

It didn't happen.

By evening, he had drifted to Black Point, and nobody had seen him. It got dark, and he flashed a flashlight toward the Diamond Head lighthouse. "I saw cars flashing their headlights back at me," he said.

When he began to get cold, he crawled forward in his boat and curled up, and slept a while. All through the night, watching the bright lights of Waikiki drift by, Ruiz said, he realized that he might not make it.

Other boats came close, but not close enough. "I saw the helicopters, but they were too close to shore."

He thought briefly about lighting his T-shirt afire and waving it as a beacon, but decided against it.

The ocean at night was "peaceful, so peaceful. I loved it. It was fabulous, real thrilling.

"Not that I recommend it," he said. "Don't try this at home, no matter where you live," the husky, 5-9, 190-pound O'ahu native said.

Ruiz said there were spiritual moments, but those began before he even left shore. "I asked the Lord to stay with me, and if it was His will, to bring me a good catch."

But in the middle of the night, "I also asked him to forgive me some things." Ruiz paused. "I'm a single parent," he said, "and sometimes I'm not too good at discipline. A few days ago I said some things to the children, and I was asking the Lord if I could take those things back."

A lot of thoughts ran through his mind. One was that "I can't mess my job up. I'm supposed to go back to work" at a lighting company in Kaimuki.

At 10:30 yesterday morning, Ruiz concluded he had given his stay-with-the-boat plan a day and a night, and he decided to let the boat go and paddle toward shore on his surfboard.

The "Moloka'i Express" current running down toward Makapu'u was in his favor, but the wind was sure to take him and the boat away from the islands, even though Kaua'i was out there somewhere as a last chance.

Tim Wong of 'Aina Haina rescued Ruiz 10 miles off Barbers Point. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

But by that time the boat was "with the Lord." And Ruiz didn't mind letting it go. "I escaped with my life, that's enough," he said later.

After four hours, "I felt like my arms were going to fall off."

But he remembered the lessons he had given his daughter, Chelsea, 12, and John 4:11. Once you start something, don't quit. And he kept telling himself he was not a quitter.

Asked if it were unwise to dive alone without any communication gear, Ruiz at first said "I trust the ocean 100 percent."

But, he added quickly, "I should have had some communication gear. I am going to try to better myself, I am not going to risk that much again. It's too scary, what could have happened."

He has another boat at home, "but I'm not in a real big thrill to get back out fishing. I'm going to take my time, let some of this sink in. I'm kind of angry with myself, taking these chances."

He said he was sorry he had worried his children.

"I talked to them by telephone, and told them I was all right," he said. "The boy cried a little bit, but I told him it was all right, that I trust myself in the ocean."

He was also looking forward to talking to his girlfriend, Shirel Correa.

"She's the girl of my dreams," he said. "And I know I will get the run down on life."