In the long and unpredictable history of ocean travel, few survival stories are as confronting as that of William and Simone Butler, a sailing couple who spent 66 days adrift in the Pacific Ocean after their yacht was sunk by whales.
Image of orcas used for illustrative purposes/Mike Doherty/Unsplash
The incident occurred on 15 June 1989, around 1 200 miles off the coast of Costa Rica, while the couple was three weeks into an ambitious attempt to circumnavigate the globe aboard their 40-foot yacht.
According to reports at the time, a group of whales surrounded the vessel before it was damaged beyond repair and eventually sank.
What followed was a two-month ordeal that tested the limits of human endurance.
A race against time as the yacht went down
As their yacht slipped beneath the waves, William and Simone had only minutes to react. They managed to grab limited food supplies, basic fishing gear and a crucial piece of equipment before abandoning ship: a manually operated desalination pump known as the Survivor-35.
The seven-pound device, designed to convert seawater into drinkable water, would become their lifeline.
With no engine, no navigation equipment and no shelter from the elements, the couple climbed into a small rubber raft and began drifting across the Pacific, carried entirely by currents and wind.
Living on raw fish and hand-pumped water
For the next 66 days, survival depended on routine and discipline. Each day, William operated the hand pump to extract around three litres of fresh water from the ocean, a slow and physically exhausting process that ensured they avoided fatal dehydration.
Food came almost entirely from the sea. Using their fishing gear, the couple caught fish daily, eating them raw to conserve energy and water. From his hospital bed after the rescue, William later told reporters that he forced himself to eat almost two pounds of raw fish a day and insisted that his wife do the same.
Despite this, both William and Simone reportedly lost around 50 pounds each over the course of the ordeal.
Sharks, sunburn and drifting without land in sight
The physical toll was severe. With little protection from the sun, both suffered intense sunburn and dehydration. They also had to contend with sharks circling the raft and aggressive feeding frenzies as fish were hauled in beside them.
Yet the couple endured, holding onto the hope that shipping routes or coastal patrols would eventually cross their path.
That hope became reality on day 66, when the Costa Rican Coast Guard spotted the raft and rescued the pair, taking them to the hospital in the coastal town of Golfito.
A rescue against the odds
Despite everything they had endured, doctors found the couple to be in relatively stable condition, given the circumstances. Beyond dehydration and severe sun exposure, they had avoided life-threatening injuries.
Speaking shortly after their rescue, William admitted how surreal the experience felt. Just days after drifting at sea, they were back on solid ground. The emotional weight of the ordeal, he said, was difficult to process.
At the time, there was interest in turning their survival story into a book or film. But the couple’s immediate focus was far simpler. They wanted rest and distance from the ocean, choosing instead to retreat inland to mountains and plains.
A lifetime shaped by the sea
William Butler passed away in June 2024, with Simone having died some years earlier. His obituary reflected a life defined by ocean adventure, noting that he began sailing at just 14 years old and captained his first blue-water voyage a year later.
Over decades, he logged more than 74 000 nautical miles, completed multiple transatlantic crossings, rounded Cape Horn and captained countless voyages with family and crew. The ill-fated circumnavigation attempt, cut short when his yacht Siboney was sunk by whales, became one of the most extraordinary chapters in a long sailing career.
Today, their story stands as a reminder of the raw power of the ocean and the resilience required to survive it, even for the most experienced sailors.
Source: People Magazine
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