Sailor recalls Navy submarine close call

Great, how are you? Thank you so much for doing this interview. I really appreciate it. Yeah, you're welcome. Thanks for having me. Of course. So, obviously, this is based off of the video that was licensed to Storyful. Tell me a little bit about what happened. I believe it was last June while you were sailing through St. Mary's River. Yeah, so I set out that morning to try to make it to St. Mary's, Georgia, actually, like near Cumberland Island. Yes. Um, and it was, um, my second time only single handing the boat. I had been sailing with people, but that was my first, my second time, sorry, um, by myself on the boat. Um, and so I, um, you know, had a really calm day and it was like nearing the end of the day. Actually, it was like 5 PM. I was like ready to get done. And then, um, I went to go cross, uh, the channel or the, the inlet where, uh, you can enter and exit the ocean and uh to the to the open water and uh the all of a sudden it was like super windy and the water there was so much current there was five knots of current the water was super rough um so i got nervous and because i was only going one knot um fighting the current fighting everything and i finally get across and start to turn uh to go into saint mary's river cross the channel safe i'm like starting to feel relieved but then that relief turns into fear again because uh i see something in the distance and i can't really can't tell what kind of boat it is it's kind of funny i remember talking to myself because i did that a lot when i was alone and i was like what is that and i kept going because again i'm only going like one knot um sailboat motors don't go very fast at all and uh with the wind coming like into my bow I really wasn't having any speed so anyways um it gets closer and it gets bigger and I'm still just like what is that and I'm getting more nervous because I've never seen a boat like that I've never seen a submarine in real life let alone uh of course and so I think it's a boat the whole time i'm thinking it's a boat and then it keeps getting bigger um because like i said i saw it about one mile away and then all of a sudden as it was getting bigger uh this this is pretty quickly this is happening pretty quickly um all of a sudden i'm like i don't know what's going on i don't know what that thing is so i'm gonna go out of the channel and just be out of the way um so i actually did leave the channel because i was getting so nervous about what was going on and just went on the other side of the channel and then i noticed that it was and then it was there and then it was a submarine and uh the navy boats pulled up on me and they said go that way with their arm like you know pointing 90 degrees the opposite direction and i said okay and i was like my heart was pounding and i i literally just looked at her and i said got it understand and i turned the boat 90 degrees completely and just went opposite perpendicular to the to the submarine And that's when I pulled out my camera after the I knew like, OK, it was kind of like a delayed reaction. Like, wait a minute. This is crazy. I should film this because when you're in the emergency, that's the last thing on your mind. You're like, well, it's not really quite an emergency. But when it's when you're scared, when something's happening to you, that's really scary. That's the last thing you think of. So it was right after I was clear and the Navy boat had just passed me. and I was like oh I should I should film this this is crazy I've never seen this before and that's when I pulled out my camera and caught just caught it leaving me and were you uh before the navy boat stopped and told you hey turn around turn around did you know that was a military area did they tell you not to go through there or nothing so I didn't know and that's the biggest thing is uh I didn't know that there was a military base um in St. Mary's Georgia and of course like i didn't really research that either because i was going to i was interested in going to cumberland island so i had no idea that there was a military base at all there uh and let alone i didn't know it was a navy base i didn't know anything and then i found out when once i you know once that had happened oh this is like routine or this can happen often in this small city because there's a navy base here and they regularly practice stuff you know drills at different things um and um so i didn't know um and then the other problem was is because it was only my second time, um, you know, single handing the boat, there's a lot of things that I'm aware of, but it's really hard to, um, in the moments, especially when you're new to kind of, so what happened was, is I heard the radio, somebody calling me, but I didn't thought it was the tower. And I thought that they were telling me, um, that the current about the current, because that has happened before where they'll, they'll give you advice about how strong the current is and that you're not, that you need to adjust course. And I couldn't. really hear the radio because i had the volume to down too low so these are all lessons learned so i learned that like you have to have the volume full blast like never again but um so yeah i didn't know that there was a military base and they did try to call me on the radio uh before while it was heading towards me and i heard something on the radio but i couldn't hear what was saying and i was trying to drive and there was current and there was wind and so i didn't go to the radio because I was so nervous about keeping control of the boat. And so now lessons learned, you know, and yeah, so that's kind of how that happened. Yeah, it's interesting. A few years ago, I tried to paddleboard that same area to get to Cumberland Island, only the park rangers were like, they put a stop to that real fast. So I was just curious if they had said anything earlier because yeah people would try to do yeah exactly i think that because it was i had i was the only boat out there it was a very like slow traffic day um so i think maybe that's why they well i don't i'm not sure how military chooses their days and stuff but um yeah um yeah the only thing like i said was the radio but i think that if you live sometimes maybe if you live in in Saint Marys you can i'm not sure i think it is top secret that i don't think that they know when, or maybe they do, I'm not sure actually, if they have reports of when they're going to do it ahead of time. Um, but yeah, I'm not sure. Did you make it to Cumberland Island? I did. It was so beautiful. It was awesome. Um, the next day, so I relaxed, um, and just slept and it was really, I was really shaken up. So I relaxed. And then the next day I went to Cumberland. And are you from that area? Uh, did you, I guess my other question is, are you, Did you leave from Florida to go over there or were you in Georgia and just trying to get over there from Georgia? Are you from this area? I actually started in Miami, Florida and was making my way north. And so I really had no idea about that area, but I did get advice to stop at Cumberland Island and check it out because it's beautiful. So that's kind of why that was one of my stops. But, yeah, I was traveling from Miami to get to head north. what was your final destination from my charleston from miami to charleston south carolina how long did that take well it depends i took a lot of pauses because i was doing it leisurely it can be fast though it can be if you go on the outside uh which is what we call like kind of taking the the ocean uh so if you go on the outside um then it can take only four to five days depending on your speed like your sailboats top speed um again speaking about sailboats um but it's about five days you know uh in an ideal situation ideal conditions um but if you do it leisurely and stop at cumberland and see some submarines and and uh crazy experiences then you take your time and it took me a couple months um because i was really pausing i stopped in saint augustine stopped in cumberland then i stopped in savannah georgia i've stopped to check out different places for a while nice and the whole time were you by yourself the entire trip or just for that leg of the trip uh after for the rest of the trip from then uh from uh from leaving what was the last stop jacksonville that was i was alone for the rest um and i actually did prefer it that way uh just because when you do have crew or when you have other people with you you have to coordinate a lot like with schedules and like what people want to do and diet and there's a lot of like uh you know it's just like taking a vacation with your friend versus going alone um and when you're alone you don't have any of that you can do whatever you want whenever you want like i say when we leave and when we go so it was a little easier for me in that way to be alone or to do it solo just because I didn't have to coordinate so much with other people and do you have any more sailing trips planned yeah actually well right now I'm focusing on renovations but I would really like to try to get to Maine next spring so over the winter I'm doing some renovations um and just kind of relaxing and enjoying because it's cold um and then in the spring I would love to try and do more of the east coast more all the way to Maine I hope fingers crossed. And any lessons learned besides the radio, any other lessons learned that you're going to apply to your upcoming sail trip or to your next sailing trip up in Maine? Um, I think confidence was a big one. Um, after doing several trips, uh, I just got the, well, having the radio up the volume, having backup radios. So having both, I have a stationary radio and i had a handheld and it broke like right before that trip so i needed a new handheld radio so having like backups would be is always beneficial um and then confidence of just kind of taking a breath and knowing um that but that comes with experience so that came from those experiences i learned that i can i can turn the autopilot on go to the radio the boat's not gonna to lose control um just that kind of comes with experience though of after the summer like many times of like having to like leave the helm or you know make sure everything was good and and um be comfortable doing that um yeah so confidence came you know is in other words is there anything else you'd like to add um more more girls should sail more female boaters more female sailors um yeah i do think that uh i don't meet a lot of other female boater uh cat like people driving boats and people um and so i uh i always hope that you know there's more of us