Deb Kiley had a vague sense of unease before her voyage on the 58-foot sailing yacht Trashman with fellow crewmembers Brad Cavanaugh, Mark Adams, Meg Mooney and Capt. John Lippoth. She didn’t get along with Mark, but there was something more, a pervasive gloomy feeling about sailing the boat from Maryland to Florida. Getting to Florida, however, was part of her plan, and she didn’t give other methods of travel serious consideration. Kiley figured the run south would be relatively brief, and then she’d leave the boat and be done with it.
Just one day before departure, however, her gut feeling became more pronounced, telling her something wasn’t quite right. So, she decided against making the voyage. She called the boat’s owner and told him she was backing out and resigning as one of the crew. He in turn reminded Kiley of her commitment, and her resolve weakened: “Before the lecture from the owner was over, I knew I was not going to get out of this trip. I walked back to the boat feeling like a fool, for making the call and for being such a pushover.”
Prior to the voyage to Florida, she had spent several days on the boat with Lippoth, and there were a couple warning signs she chose to ignore. Perhaps the biggest red flag occurred on the first day she stepped foot on the vessel, There were other signals that neither the boat nor the captain were shipshape, but she let those slide, instead thinking ahead to the warm sunshine awaiting her in Florida, where she planned to spend the winter or sign on with another sailboat cruising the Caribbean.
