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Just a few thoughts from a yachtsman: It seems likely that the Captain wanted to go out, but looking at the early track of the storm as they sailed south, he thought it best to pass southbound well in front of it and find a hole somewhere rather than risk being caught on the north side of it. (always it seems a bad idea, like the time I thought I could cross a shipping lane in front of a tanker - yes I did this)

I suspect also that he counted on auxiliary propulsion to "beat the storm" but that the "lost propulsion" landed them square offshore in the teeth of it.

I am almost certain that they lost electrical, too, i.e. Weatherfax, SSB, etc. which is why the parent company lost them and they may have had insufficient meteorological information.

A ship like that has a lot of resistance topsides and high freeboard, making some kind of drogue or sea-anchor warped off the bow the only option near the end... Not that big a deal, I've done it, but in this case we are dealing with a big sail even with all canvas down. The last option being, of course, to cut away the masts and rigging and pray they don't hole the boat... A practically impossible feat on a boat like that in those conditions.

Finally I imagine the ship was abandoned when the masts began to break, slip their partners or stretch their steps if that is possible, and the seams began to open up.

I also submit they are still feeling the whip of Vice Admiral William Bligh, who may never let Saint Peter look upon their sorry souls.

I now submit these armchair hypotheticals to the stinging criticism of Lord Kenny Bunk, Rear Admiral of the Ocean Seas and Highly Rated in All Conditions by Unfortunate Women in and out of Every Port.

Dodging freighters is a common hazard when sailing on the Great Lakes, especially at night in Lake Huron during the Port Huron to Mackinac Island Race, particularly in the Straits of Mackinac. I recall crossing in front of a freighter so close that we surfed down her bow wave while the crew of the freighter looked over her rail to see if there were any survivors from that yacht of fools.

Their course was the logical one and based on sound seamanship considering the magnitude of the hurricane.

They were effectively sailing on the eastward side of the storm, heading south and would have successfully sailed around the southern tail of the storm had their engines and pumps not given out.

It was a calculated risk and the right one to make considering the fact that the ship would have been destroyed if it had made port anywhere along the coastline where the hurricane was the most intense...........

You can read more of their account on their facebook page at

https://www.facebook.com/HMSBounty

Although ignorance of pertinent facts has rarely deterred me from making an official suitably be-ribboned report to my insurance companies, esteemed colleagues, and yachting confrères in the past, (as you probably all too well recall), I am taking this one too hard to authoritatively rule right now. Although I had never been aboard, I obsessively followed her creation and subsequent operations in the marine press for some years.

But, it's not the first time a sailing vessel has been caught on that particularly brutal lee shore. It's not the place to be close in, as the Bounty unfortunately demonstrated as she joins the thousands of her sisters who lie sunken in those waters. With 90 mph winds onshore, no auxiliary engine (I think I recall she had a 500Hp MTU) is going to allow a sailing vessel with that much tophamper to claw her way off Cape Hatteras to safer deep water.

I looked at this mess develop on NOAA Radar over the past few days as she moved in from SSE and cannot fathom why anyone would be on that heading, no matter where the heck they were going! So, let's wait for survivor reports to filter in on this one and pray the CG finds the Captain. We should also wait until Wooden Boat opines on the matter, as I think they reported on Bounty's recent overhaul!