Read Online Rescue of the Bounty: Disaster and Survival in Superstorm Sandy by Michael J. Tougias, Douglas A. Campbell - Free Book Online
Authors: Michael J. Tougias, Douglas A. Campbell
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plants and many types of insects.
“A patch of grass the size of a dinner plate. It made me realize it wasn’t just grass. I didn’t even know what was in my own yard. And if you put that in perspective with Earth, I know nothing about what is around me. I just started exploring everything,” Scornavacchi recalled.
Even as a young adult, he would have difficulty being content. He would always need to do more, see more. There would always be something to explore, even in a barren room. But the feeling began back then, in grade school.
In the first grade, he looked ahead and saw twelve more years of school. He started abhorring routines. They were monotonous, inhibited his ability to live. He became depressed.
The feeling lasted until he was fifteen. Then he realized that he was wasting time. Obsessing about his inability to constantly experience the world around him, he was also doing little.
He decided to stop thinking and start living. He was in high school now and joined every group he could find: the orchestra, the concert band, the jazz band, the choir, the wrestling team, hockey, tae kwon do, the Christian Club. He became president of the outdoor club and the dance club. He joined the ski and snowboarding club.
Having switched into overdrive, he found that though he was well-rounded, he was mediocre at everything and an expert in nothing.
“If I was to climb Mount Everest at that point in time, I would have done more than I had ever done in my life, but looking out over that expanse, I would see that there was more to do out there than I knew before,” he said now. He was overwhelmed.
For a while in high school, Scornavacchi suffered from narcolepsy. He fell asleep randomly and as a result began missing school. He was medicated and the sleep disorder vanished.
He earned his Eagle rank in Boy Scouts and had the grades to enroll in Penn State University after high school. There, in rural central Pennsylvania, he found a passion for the outdoors.
He camped, backpacked, did rock climbing and scuba diving. In the summer, he worked as a white-water rafting and kayaking guide in nearby Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania.
Scornavacchi lived to hike in the snow. In this and other activities, he found that he was alone. Others were content to remain indoors in front of a television. When he worked, his fellow employees would, at the end of the day, go to a bar. He wanted to go hiking and backpacking. He went alone.
Ten inches of snow covered the forest one February day when, alone, he headed into the woods. Reaching a campsite, he set up his tent and spent the night. The following morning, he was headed out of the woods with a sixty-pound pack on his back when his knee snapped, tearing his meniscus. His leg was stuck in one spot.
“I couldn’t put much weight on it,” he said. “I used the two ski poles I had brought with me and then dragged myself out of the woods. It started raining and it got dark and a lot of times I had to crawl. Every time I took a step, I would thank God I was able to take one more step.”
He made it out of the woods. Undeterred, he would go back for more. Perhaps he was testing himself. He wanted the whole experience and believed if he held back, he would only get part of it.
He felt the same way when the infection interrupted his voyage on Bounty . And so, when the boils healed and the infection was gone, Scornavacchi got back aboard the tall ship.
CHAPTER EIGHT
A VIGILANT WATCH
Joshua Scornavacchi was but one of sixteen aboard Bounty when, twenty-four hours into her voyage and nearing sunset, she was making seven knots across the Atlantic Ocean, about 110 miles south of Montauk Point, Long Island, and due east of Atlantic City, New Jersey. C-Watch—with watch captain Dan Cleveland, Anna Sprague, Drew Salapatek, and Scornavacchi—was on duty on the weather deck, and at the forward end of the tween deck, the evening meal was being prepared in the galley.
The seas had been between three
“A patch of grass the size of a dinner plate. It made me realize it wasn’t just grass. I didn’t even know what was in my own yard. And if you put that in perspective with Earth, I know nothing about what is around me. I just started exploring everything,” Scornavacchi recalled.
Even as a young adult, he would have difficulty being content. He would always need to do more, see more. There would always be something to explore, even in a barren room. But the feeling began back then, in grade school.
In the first grade, he looked ahead and saw twelve more years of school. He started abhorring routines. They were monotonous, inhibited his ability to live. He became depressed.
The feeling lasted until he was fifteen. Then he realized that he was wasting time. Obsessing about his inability to constantly experience the world around him, he was also doing little.
He decided to stop thinking and start living. He was in high school now and joined every group he could find: the orchestra, the concert band, the jazz band, the choir, the wrestling team, hockey, tae kwon do, the Christian Club. He became president of the outdoor club and the dance club. He joined the ski and snowboarding club.
Having switched into overdrive, he found that though he was well-rounded, he was mediocre at everything and an expert in nothing.
“If I was to climb Mount Everest at that point in time, I would have done more than I had ever done in my life, but looking out over that expanse, I would see that there was more to do out there than I knew before,” he said now. He was overwhelmed.
For a while in high school, Scornavacchi suffered from narcolepsy. He fell asleep randomly and as a result began missing school. He was medicated and the sleep disorder vanished.
He earned his Eagle rank in Boy Scouts and had the grades to enroll in Penn State University after high school. There, in rural central Pennsylvania, he found a passion for the outdoors.
He camped, backpacked, did rock climbing and scuba diving. In the summer, he worked as a white-water rafting and kayaking guide in nearby Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania.
Scornavacchi lived to hike in the snow. In this and other activities, he found that he was alone. Others were content to remain indoors in front of a television. When he worked, his fellow employees would, at the end of the day, go to a bar. He wanted to go hiking and backpacking. He went alone.
Ten inches of snow covered the forest one February day when, alone, he headed into the woods. Reaching a campsite, he set up his tent and spent the night. The following morning, he was headed out of the woods with a sixty-pound pack on his back when his knee snapped, tearing his meniscus. His leg was stuck in one spot.
“I couldn’t put much weight on it,” he said. “I used the two ski poles I had brought with me and then dragged myself out of the woods. It started raining and it got dark and a lot of times I had to crawl. Every time I took a step, I would thank God I was able to take one more step.”
He made it out of the woods. Undeterred, he would go back for more. Perhaps he was testing himself. He wanted the whole experience and believed if he held back, he would only get part of it.
He felt the same way when the infection interrupted his voyage on Bounty . And so, when the boils healed and the infection was gone, Scornavacchi got back aboard the tall ship.
CHAPTER EIGHT
A VIGILANT WATCH
Joshua Scornavacchi was but one of sixteen aboard Bounty when, twenty-four hours into her voyage and nearing sunset, she was making seven knots across the Atlantic Ocean, about 110 miles south of Montauk Point, Long Island, and due east of Atlantic City, New Jersey. C-Watch—with watch captain Dan Cleveland, Anna Sprague, Drew Salapatek, and Scornavacchi—was on duty on the weather deck, and at the forward end of the tween deck, the evening meal was being prepared in the galley.
The seas had been between three
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