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At the mercy of the ocean

Four men get a glimpse of Mother Nature's brute force during a trans-Atlantic trek

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Sixty-year-old Bill Lawrenson of Indigo Run squints at a tiny speck where his calloused thumb pinches against his index finger. That's how big and important you feel when tossed about by the Atlantic Ocean.

Lawrenson just got back to Hilton Head Island from a 3,000-mile trip across the Atlantic in a 45-foot sailboat. Four men made the trek from Tenerife in the Canary Islands to Bridgetown, Barbados in 18 days.

It wasn't meant to be a pleasure cruise. Lawrenson knew it would be nothing like the trip last summer across the Mediterranean Sea when his wife, Judith, was along and they docked at ancient fishing ports each evening and strolled to local markets.

This trip would be work and he knew it.

What he didn't expect was the spitting anger of the sea.

"I thought the ocean was a juvenile delinquent," Lawrenson said in the accent of his native South Africa. "It was just mad at the world, and there's not a thing you could do about it."

Only one day was calm. The rest of the time, the boat called Happy Now was banged by 10-foot waves, some reaching as high as 16 feet. The pitches and rolls came every 10 seconds, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Squalls cracked open the skies in the brooding pre-dawn hours, jerking wind gusts up to 35 knots and throwing down blinding sheets of rain.

JUST A BATHTUB TOY

Lawrenson's hands are calloused from holding on as waves, swells and wind collided from three or four directions, twisting the 17-ton boat in a rolling corkscrew motion like a child was playing with a bathtub toy.

Friction caused by the power of wind and water relentlessly yanked at the vessel's every part. For the flesh and bones of the crew, fatigue and falls were the problem. Owner and skipper Dudley Nigg of California, a nine-year veteran of round-the-world sailing, was tossed 8 feet across the galley.

Then there were the head games that come with going three days of seeing nothing but flying fish. They saw only six other vessels the whole trip. The vastness of the ocean was as overwhelming as its brute strength.

Aboard the Happy Now -- an Island Packet Yacht that Lawrenson said was built sturdy as a Sherman tank in Largo, Fla. -- another drama played out. Three hard-charging men who raced to early retirement had to push down their egos to be the crew, not the skipper.

Nigg, 60, was a top officer at Wells Fargo. Crewman Barry White, 64, is a retired contractor who restored historic homes. Steve Matthews, a pup at 45, is a former auto mechanic who now owns a dog-walking business. Lawrenson is a retired chief financial officer of public companies.

They each brought different skills and the kind of experience you need when the log shows only three days when nothing broke or went wrong. It helped that Lawrenson and Nigg have been friends for 30 years. Judith Lawrenson and Nigg's wife, Philippa, are best friends with their own special ties. They gave birth to baby girls on the same day in the same hospital. The couples have sailed thousands of miles together.

A BELIEVER TO A KNOWER

The crew was able to send nightly e-mails home, and Lawrenson said they were never in danger. They enjoyed a breathtaking sunset on the one calm day. They listened to books on CDs, but none of them captured the imagination like seeing birds fishing 1,000 miles from shore. Lawrenson left a trail of Hilton Head at sea. He opted out of doing wash by wearing throw-away clothes -- all-cotton T-shirts -- that were a quarter a pop at the Bargain Box thrift store, where he and Judith are volunteers.

Lawrenson, a stocky man with agraying beard, said trans-Atlantic sailing is a fantastic weight-loss program. He dropped 15 pounds in three weeks.

But the real story is what he gained.

"My Christian faith is a lot stronger," Lawrenson said. "Every now and then I am reminded firsthand that there is a God, and this was one of those times. You move from being a believer to a knower."

Lawrenson said he was at peace and never fearful.

He had a lot of time to think about being a powerless speck on a furious ocean more than 1,000 feet deep.

"I came away understanding the value of my family, the love I have for my wife and the caring of God," He said. "And a deep respect for everyone else on the boat."

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