NEED TO KNOW
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In 1989, a couple set out on a yachting adventure
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William and Simone Butler were 1,200 miles off the Costa Rica coast when their boat sank
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From there, they took to a life raft — where they survived for 66 days adrift in the Pacific Ocean
It’s a story fairly familiar to anyone who’s followed orca activity in recent years: a couple was shipwrecked when their yacht was surrounded and sunk by a group of whales off the coast of Costa Rica. But what happened next was altogether different, with the two enduring 66 days adrift in the Pacific Ocean in a rubber raft, saved by a tiny device aptly named “Survivor.”
William and Simone Butler were three weeks into a journey attempting to circumnavigate the globe on their 40-foot yacht, roughly 1,200 miles off the coast, when they were sunk by whales on June 15, 1989.
The two scrambled to grab food, fishing gear and a 7-lb. pump called the “Survivor-35” — a manually operated pump that converts saltwater to fresh water — before getting into a rubber raft.
AP Photo/Ezequiel Becerra
William and Simone Butler
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That quick thinking proved integral, as the two would be stuck in the raft for 66 days, adrift in the Pacific Ocean.
For more than two months, they subsisted mostly on raw fish and “a precious three liters of potable water that William,” then aged 60, squeezed out of the Survivor each day, per PEOPLE’s reporting at the time.
At the end of the 66-day ordeal, William and Simone, then 52, were rescued by the Costa Rican Coast Guard and taken to a hospital in the coastal city of Golfito.
Despite the odds, the two were in relatively good health (other than being dehydrated and severely sunburned). From his hospital bed, William told reporters they had caught fish daily, saying, “I forced myself to eat almost 2 lbs. of raw fish a day, and I forced my wife to eat it too.”
Even with the fish, both William and Simone lost a reported 50 lbs. each during the ordeal.
Following their recovery, the couple arrived back in the states, with William telling reporters, “It’s hard to believe that seven days ago we were still adrift, trying to make landfall. Really, it’s hard to discuss the situation.”
The couple said they fended off shark attacks and fish feeding frenzies during the ordeal and had been contacted about turning their story into a book or movie.
But in the aftermath, they were more content to stay on solid ground. “We’re going to rest – and go away from the ocean for a while, to the mountains, the prairies,” William said at the time, per PEOPLE’s reporting.
Per an obituary, William died in June 2024, with his wife dying some years earlier.
Even his obituary recounted his sailing adventures, which began at age 14, when “he skippered his first blue water voyage from Havana to Varadero on his 15-foot Snipe.”
“Bill went on to skipper countless voyages, including treasure hunting, fishing, three transatlantic voyages, rounding Cape Horn, and an attempted circumnavigation which ended when his sailboat Siboney was sunk by whales,” the obituary read.
“Over the course of Bill’s sailing years, he logged over 74,000 nautical miles at sea with his children, grandchildren, and numerous crewmembers aboard his two mistresses of the sea, Siboney and New Chance.”
Read the original article on People
