Rescued boaters recall rough maiden voyage

Dizzy from seasickness, Jorge Solano of Whitestone, Queens, struggled to maintain radio contact with Coast Guard rescuers as his 30-foot sailboat took on more and more water in gale-force winds and deep swells in the Long Island Sound.

The weather had taken a frightening turn about 6 p.m. during Solano's maiden voyage Thursday with two other New York City men. Then the bilge pump on the Tricolore, a Beneteau First 30, stopped working, so they began dumping water manually. That proved futile.

After several hours of struggling with the sailboat, a Suffolk police marine bureau vessel appeared and officers implored Solano,29, and his two mates, Frederick Chandler and Nicholas Condos, both 28, to jump to safety.

"I didn't think I was going to die, to be honest with you, but I was worried because, number one, I don't want to sink," Solano said.

The Suffolk police vessel rescued Solano, Chandler and Condos by 8:30 p.m. They were treated for hypothermia and nausea at St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson. All three were soon released.

Describing the moments before he hurtled onto the deck of the police vessel, Condos recalled thinking: "I'm going to jump as far as I can jump because otherwise, I'm going to die.

"You don't know how dramatic it was. It was something out of a movie," said Condos, still wearing his hospital bracelet at his Washington Heights home.

The voyage began in calmer waters, about 6 a.m. by Three Mile Harbor, Solano said. The trio were taking the newly purchased boat from the East End to City Island, where he planned to store it; Solano had saved up the $15,000 or so for the sailboat cost. They'd packed tuna sandwiches and snacks and planned to stay for a night in Port Jefferson.

Then came late afternoon and the weather forecast grew ominous. Their troubles began.

"It was very rough seas. It was crazy. Wave after wave just crashing, all the water coming in and you're getting soaked," Solano said. "It was pretty sick."

All the while, he thought about his children, Benjamin, 1; Brandon, 5; stepson Marcus Ford, 13; and wife, Tamara, 33, whom he called every half-hour or so to say he was safe once trouble began.

Even once the police boat got there, the churning seas made it a challenge to get close enough for the jumps.

"I had to jump from one boat while it was crashing in the waves to the police boat. They tried to pull up to our boat but they couldn't. They didn't want to toss us a line because they didn't want to get stuck going down with us," Condos said.

After all three jumped aboard the police vessel, the marine unit, the Coast Guard and other first responders were unable to secure the sailboat, which drifted overnight and was found Friday morning at Bailey Beach in the Mattituck Inlet.

On Friday, Solano and his wife were trying to figure out what to do with the boat, which he said is still seaworthy.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Jonathan Cinquegrana said the agency was not investigating why the boat began to sink but said it may have been the weather.

"It was rough out there. Winds of 25 knots, seas 4 to 5 feet -- that's rough anywhere," he said.

With William Murphy

and Emily Ngo