Two days are drift. You keep looking at the water, like you can't take your eyes off it. But you know you can't have it. They pass a glass jar between them. A sip, you have a sip, not guilt. We must try the drink less. It wasn't a quad, it wasn't a pint. This water's got to last us. Careful, look too much. We were living on a thimble fall at a time. And we used to watch the water. We were watching it all the time. All they can think about is water. All they can see is water. They're surrounded by it. But drinking water? We had 18 tins. Just 18 pints from a survival kit stitched into the life raft. We calculated by taking sips that we had 10 days supply of water. 10 days. 10 days. Which means they have 10 days to be rescued. 10 days before they're all dead. So they need water. And they need food. And do-go-nose desperate people do desperate things. So he makes his family swear an oath. We will not eat each other. We will not eat each other. We will not eat each other. We will not eat each other. This is a drift. An apple original podcast produced by Blanchard House. I'm Becky Milligan. Music Episode 3 An impossible choice. January 1972. Six months before the new set goes down. The family are taking time out of their round-the-world trip to earn some money in Miami, Florida. 18-year-old Anne has a new boyfriend, Jeff, who she's met here in Miami. And she suddenly drops a bombshell. We announced that we were in love. And we were going to stay together. She said, I'm leaving. I mean, Jeff, I'm going to get married. My mother went bonkers. She said, what do you mean you're getting married? How did you feel about it? I felt devastated, felt really depressed. Because she was kind of my soul mate. Lynn and Dougal tried to persuade their daughter to stay. My mother was beside herself. She was losing her daughter. But she had no choice and's headstrong. When I know, I know. Just like her dad. She was 18. You know, she was off. 17-year-old Douglas is also making a new life for himself, cruising the streets of Miami in a fancy car. VH Chevy Camaro. The sports version. I was a farmer's son. And there I was in Miami with my Chevy. And people think, how the hell did he get that? Good question. It's a gift from a new friend, Albert, who's in his 40s. A male nurse. And good money. Our chute Douglas under his wing. Showering him with attention and gifts. He teaches him how to drive. And it's not only Douglas. He's generous to the whole family. Very, very generous. And they liked him. And they liked him. Dougal is spending more and more time with his new friend. He would go and work at Al's house and all this sort of business. And he stays over. The family see Douglas less and less. They think, what a good friend Albert is, especially to Douglas. But for Douglas, it's going much further than that. And the family have no idea. I was living like a double life. He used whatever means to make sure he got what he wanted. And looking back now, here's how Anne sees things. You could say that the family was groomed by him. Do you think that's what happened to Douglas? I do think that's what happened to Douglas. It's happening right in front of their noses. They don't see it. That's how it happens. One morning, Dougal wakes up to what's really going on. I met Douglas and Albert, returning from yet another driving lesson. They both come on board the loose set, chatting quietly together. Dougal catches part of their conversation. And it made my blood run cold. Dougal and Lynn are stunned. And they want to put a stop to it. So they tell the crew, where off? We're leaving Miami as soon as we can. I thought, bloody hell, I don't want to leave. So Douglas confronts his dad. And I said to him, what do you mean, we're leaving? We live here. He said, we've forgotten we're going around the world. Douglas has to make a choice. Stay or go. And Albert makes him an offer. Douglas stay here in America. I'll look after you. You can have everything that I have. Despite everything, Douglas is tempted. Your abuser, you form a relationship with them. That is what you need and quite strange. But if he stays and abandons the loose set, it's the end of the family's dream. Douglas's younger brother, Sandy. Mum and Doug felt they lost Douglas. If Douglas took the same route as Anne, the trip would have been over. Douglas knows he's essential. Dad Dougal needs him to help sail the boat. I was the strong man. They couldn't go on without me. Dougal could not do it himself. Dougal and Albert wait for Douglas to decide. My heart was racing. There was an ominous, overbearing silence. Douglas looks at his dad and then Albert. I said, we're leaving Albert. We're leaving today. And he was crying. And he said, Douglas, when you finish your trip, come back and see me. I put my arms down, Albert, in front of my dad and Mum. Did they ever talk to you about it? Never. Never. And you didn't talk to them about it? I tried. They didn't want to know. Which meant to me they didn't know. Douglas watches Albert walk away. There are. After six months in Miami. But without Anne, who's staying behind with her boyfriend. And we left that world behind us. We were on our way again. We were on our trip around the world again. To Jamaica. On to Panama. And on to the Pacific. May 1972. Club Nordico. Colón. Panama. Northern Gateway to the Panama Canal. A busy state. A busy state. A busy state. A busy state. A busy state. A busy state. A busy state. A busy state. A busy state. A busy state. A busy staging post, where crews rest, stop up, refuel, relax, and have a drink or two, before setting off on their long voyages. And for anyone hoping to catch a ride, it's that perfect place to hang out. It's a sunny spring afternoon, when 22-year-old Robin drops by the club. Robin's a graduate, and he's been travelling for the best part of the year, the best part of the year and now he's hoping to hit your lift to New Zealand. And this is when fate steps in when a random meeting orders the course of your life. Because Robin bumps into doogle who's about to take the loose set through the Panamark Canal and onto New Zealand. And they get talking. He was a fairly gruff sort of character. He was a man of the sea. He looked a man of the sea. Had the air of a man of the sea. Doogle thinks an extra pair of hands could be useful now and gone. And fortunately for me they had a spare bunk. Within half-hour meeting in, Doogle basically says, hey, Addy, welcome on board. We liked him. He was tall. Square-rimmed glasses. Dark curly hair. Big beard. Long thin legs and normally knees. Loud, well spoken. Talked a lot. Very confident. Did you like him? Oh, yeah. Definitely. You know, he fed it in. He was one of us. I was accepted. And I was part of the crew. The Lucette sets off through the great Panama Canal. It takes less than a day to reach the vast blue expanse of... The Pacific. The Pacific. 64 million square miles. 35,000 feet deep. Spread across almost a third of the Earth's surface. We felt privileged to be there. We were excited to be there. We were now on the other side of the Americas. They're at the beginning of a long journey across the world's biggest ocean. It should take them about 45 days. Next stop, New Zealand. June, 1972. One day after the sinking of the Lucette. The family sits in the raft, while Lynn sings and prays. Dougal is taking stock, trying to clear his head, and work out what on Earth they do now. There's one immediate problem. The raft was already leaking. There's water in the raft. They all start to bail it out, and that quickly becomes their constant, tedious routine. Bailing water. But it's a losing battle, because there's no way of fixing the leak. They do have the fiberglass dinghy, which Dougal, in the nick of time, had tied to the raft when the Lucette went down, but it's flooded, useless. What good is that? And they really are on their own. We were right out in the Pacific Ocean, miles away from civilization. Dougal is trying to work out their position. I knew that our latitude was one degree 15 minutes south of the equator. But I was trying to work out where we'd gone down, how far we drifted, and where we were on our own. Thankfully, the family do have that survival kit. Glucose tablets, 45 bread, a jar of sweets. And along with the onions and lemons salvaged from the Lucette, that's all they have to eat. Then tucked into a pocket in the side of the raft, Lin discovers a survival manual. It had various tips and helpful advice. One of the recommendations was to stay put and await rescue. But that doesn't make sense. There was absolutely no point staying put. No one knew we were drift. That was a scary thing. Dougal is racking his brain, trying to think of a way out of this. But he can't. He thinks their chances of survival are practically zero. But that's not something he's going to say out loud, because he and Lin have made a solemn oath to each other. If we only do one thing, Dougal, we must get our boys back to land. He could let the winds and currents carry them across the Pacific. But that was out of the question, because he would take at least 70 days. They'll die long before that. And going the other way back to where they've come from, to the east, the wind and currents will be against them. So that won't work either. Dougal has to come up with a plan. He remembers Lin's sisters telling him this whole venture was mad. You're crazy. You've got your children to think about. They were so worried they bought them a dinghy. What would they say now? Dougal looks at the dinghy, now waterlogged. And then he has the germ of an idea, an idea which might actually work. It's the first night in the raft. They're all shattered, but none of them can sleep, because they're not alone. What's that? The bottom of the raft is soft. Did you feel that? What was it? And then the bumps got harder and harder. We were being assaulted from underneath constantly. It was like getting kicked in the backside. Small fish, big fish, all kinds of fish. Whole new world is evolving beneath them. And when the sun's gone down. It was pitch black, darker than dark. She didn't know what was going on. Lin is lying awake. It was a strange night full of fear and dread. Earlier, she'd seen Dougal hugging the twins. I heard him say, oh, my beloved boys. Dougal can't sleep either. Would it be death by thirst or starvation? Either way, I imagined a slow deterioration into a long sleep. Douglass has finally managed to drift off. The dreams I had were so unfair. Douglass is below deck on a luxury yacht anchored in turquoise waters next to a glittering white sandy beach. An exotic Caribbean island, just like the ones they visited a few months before. I was in a warm, comfortable bed with thick, duvet, and fluffy pillars. Only to wake up in this raft. Two days are drift. Douglass hears a noise outside. He lifts the flap and peers out. It's bright moonlight. The sea is black. And Dougal was working on the dinghy outside. He's kneeling down in the little boat, putting the finishing touches to a homemade mast. He's used one of the oars and some rope they found floating in the sea. And he said, look, Lin, I've got the messed up. Douglass isn't impressed. Looks like rubbish to me, you know? You know, that'll never work. But Dougal ignores him. We unfilled the sail. The sail filled. And off it went. Miraculous. The dinghy can now pull the raft with all of them inside, like a tugboat. And that means they're no longer drifting at the mercy of the winds and currents. We could sail in a direction at speed. Not fast, but at least they're moving. Two knots 50 miles a day. Every day, 50 miles. And we were thinking, bloody hell. And I suddenly realized that my dad's idea was actually a brilliant one. You know what I mean? But they only have 10 days of water. So where do they go? What's the plan? Dougal has made a rough chart using a map he found in the survival kit. I marked in the coordinates with the Galapagos and as many of the islands as I could remember to the north. And I lightly penciled in the route I thought we might take. So the plan is aim for... The shipping lanes. The shipping lanes. The oceans freeways, where they'll be rescued. We would get there, we would sit there until the ship sailed past and picked us up. That was our plan. We were definitely going to be picked up by a ship in the shipping lanes. Dad said, we'll get picked up. First ship we'll see your pickers up. I believed every word my dad said. So if he said we're going to get picked up, we're going to get picked up. He wasn't a mastermind at me. He was our dad. He's not glad to die. We were back in business. We had a plan. We weren't sitting there waiting to die. We got our took boat now and we're going to be rescued. But there's something DuGle isn't telling them. He doesn't know if this is going to work. If it will even take them in the right direction. DuGle's plan to save their lives is a long shot. Can they make it to the shipping lanes? Will their water last? Another plan has crossed his mind. It's high risk because it means asking his son Douglas to make an impossible decision. The hours and minutes tick by. And a daily routine emerges. Strict meal times. And they pass water round taking tiny sips. There's still no sign of rain. They become more and more thirsty, more and more dehydrated. And the raft continues to deflate. They're constantly topping up the air and bailing out the water. The wind carries them slowly, pushing them northwards where DuGle hopes they might be spotted and rescued. And each day, at midday, when the sun is at its highest point, DuGle tries to work out their position. It's late afternoon. They talk about their last port of call before setting off the Pacific, the Galapagos Islands. Paradise, full of weird and wonderful creatures they'd never heard of. The Albatross, Marine iguanas, giant tortoises, the blue-footed booby, a lifetime ago. DuGle is next to his eldest son. He leans towards him. I began it barely more than a whisper, so the others couldn't hear me. He said, Douglas. Douglas, you can roll. You can roll better than any of us. Take the dinghy back to the Galapagos Islands and raise the alarm. He's the only one who can do it. Douglas doesn't answer. He can't quite believe what his father is asking him to do. It's hundreds of miles, and he would be all alone in the dinghy. And he's sure he won't make it. He's about to say... There's no way. But then, he looks into his dad's eyes. It was the desperation. I loved my dad. I had a lot of respect for him. And I wanted to please him. Because I always wanted to be a mad-out hero. He was my hero. And you wanted his approval? And I wanted his approval. And a constantly sought his approval, which you would never give. Do you think you're still looking for his approval? You're probably. Probably spend the rest of my life doing it. He's also scared. You didn't disobey him. We learnt on the Lucette. You would do what he said. Douglas asks when? Tomorrow. That evening, the sky turns pitch black. Douglas can't sleep. I've got to tell him now. I have got to say to do, Dad. I'm not doing it. Next day, he comes out with it. We'll all die. If I do that, we're all going to die. I'm going to die out there alone. You lot are going to die here together. Because there's no way. I can get that dinghy back to the Galapagos Islands. I don't even know where they are. Douglas thinks his dad is about to lose it. He didn't. He put his arms around me. I'm sorry, Douglas. I should never have asked. Where Dad was human, after all. All this tough facade. Somewhere in there was a father. Day seven. Dawn. The water is nearly gone. The first is agony. Their lips and tongues are swollen. There's no way of knowing if they've reached the shipping lanes. Clouds are gathering above them in the early morning sky. The water is coming. The water is coming. The water is coming. The water is coming. They grab their water cans and hold them up to the heavens. They fill to the top in seconds. And then they drink. Douglas swatches the clouds lifting and the sky turning blue. There's a ship over there. It's a ship. It's a ship. It's a ship, baby, rescue boys. It's a ship. You've been listening to Adrift, an apple original podcast, produced by Blanchard House, and hosted by me, Becky Milligan. Adrift is written and produced by Ben Critan and me Becky Milligan. The series is based on the book The Last Voyage of the Lucette by Douglas Robertson. Original score by Daniel Lloyd Evans, Louis Nankmanel and Toby Matemoll. Sound design by Vulcan Kisletug and Daniel Lloyd Evans, with dialogue editing by Toby Matemoll. The lead sound engineer is Vulcan Kisletug. The part of Dugal Robertson is played by Mark Bonner and Lin Robertson is played by Anne Marie Duff. Their words are adapted from Dugal and Lin's own accounts of their story. The young Robertson twins are played by Rocco Hamill and Dexter Hutton. Other parts are played by Mark Gillis. The managing producer is Amika Shautino Nolan. The creative director of Blanchard House is Rosie Pye. The executive producer and head of content at Blanchard House is Lawrence Grisel.
