While lying in my bunk, as I could not sleep anyway, I heard a faint warning bell go off and overheard the captian announce "We have a problem!" My friend Larry Hills came to me and said we were heading for shore and of course, I asked why!

What had happened was that the front cables that hold the front loading ramp had snapped on one side then the other and then both safety chains had also broken and water was rushing into the front ofthe boat. The captain headed for shore and ran the boat forward unitl the ramp began to drag bottom and at this point he turned the boat around and headed it as far as possible toward the beach, which was approximately 300 yards away. All this time the huge waves were hammering at hte side of the boat.

As we were fighting to stay afloat, we saw the 50 P.E.T.S and everything else that would float pass by the boat. Once we got the boat securely on the sand then the boat became stable, which took several hours to accomplish, and we were not sure that we wouldn't capsize. It was a harrowing three hours and we were all wet and in the dark. I thougth it would never get daylight.

The ship was a complete wreck on the inside with almost all the glass knocked out and evrything that was loose was on the floor. At one point I thought that we were going to have to jump off the boat into unknown waters and swim to shore. At approximately 9 a.m. the next morning, a fisherman came out to check us out but the water was so rought that he could not get near our boat. About one hour later he came back and was able to get a rope to us. It was so rough that we had to jump into the water and swim to the rscue boat. We all made it ot the boat OK, except our doctor broke his leg jumping itnot he water. After we alll left the boat the water got rougher. THe water came inot the boat and flooded the four big diesel engines. The boat now sits in a watery grave approximately 10 miles from where Christopher Columbus landed on his fourth voyage to the Americas. The province is called Gracias A Dios. When Columbus left he told the people thank you and good bye and thus the province was named this.

The boat and all the cargo was valued at approximately $100,000,000 but, yes, we will make another attempt to help these less fortunate people of this piece of land that stretches approximately 1,000 miles along the Coast of Honduras and Nicarauga.

The next day after the mishap we chartered a small plane and flew out, with our film crew, to the area we had attempted to go to in the boat. WE saw many poeple there who needed the P.E.T.s and also many children who did not have even one asprin or band aid.

If we can come up with the funds, we will be shipping a 40 foot container of clinical supplies and 100 P.E.T.s on May 1, 2007 and 2 more later this year, or approximately 500 P.E.T.s. If you would like to help with medical supplies, money or prayer, we woudl welcome it. We need blankets, all kinds of clinical supplies, vitamins, band aids, gauze, tape, wood, working equipment for self help shop, 16 inch planer, joiner, hand tools. Contact us for more information.

The P.E.T.s cost $250 so if you would like to help by providing a P.E.T. or help pay the freight of $75 per P.E.T., or if your organization would like to join us on the project, please contact us!