Deborah Scaling Kiley Survived Five Days in a Life Raft
Sailor Deborah Scaling Kiley survived a wreck, dehydration and sharks during five days in a small raft in the Atlantic.
In 1982, sailor Deborah Scaling Kiley joined the crew delivering the yacht Trashman from Maine toward Florida. A violent storm struck off the US East Coast, damaging the vessel and forcing the crew into an inflatable raft.
Life-raft rescue training. Photo: DonScrr/Pexels.
Five days of exposure
The survivors had little water or protection. Injuries, dehydration and saltwater exposure rapidly weakened the group. Sharks circled the raft, adding a visible threat to an already severe medical emergency.
Kiley and fellow survivor Brad Cavanagh tried to maintain discipline and avoid drinking seawater. Three other crew members died before a passing Soviet cargo ship rescued the pair.
5 days
In the life raft
2
Survivors rescued
1982
Year of the sinking
Source: Survivor accounts and contemporary profiles
Speaking about survival
Kiley later became an author and speaker. Her account focused not only on sharks, the detail most often highlighted in retellings, but on preparation, group decisions and the physical consequences of dehydration.
What the ordeal teaches
Sea survival compresses leadership into basic choices: protect fresh water, manage injury, maintain the raft and resist decisions that bring temporary relief at catastrophic cost.
Kiley’s story also broadened public recognition of women in offshore sailing. She had already built serious ocean experience before the disaster; survival was not her only achievement.
Sources
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