Beyond Courage: Shipwrecked and Adrift: One Family Fights to Survive

In the middle of a two-year excursion around the Pacific, a family of Jehovah's Witnesses is shipwrecked, stranded for 26 days in their dinghies and on a sandbar. At the outset of this true story, conflict between Chris Aros, 16, and his 30-something stepmother, Margaret, threatens the pleasant atmosphere of a family voyage planned by father Bob and Margaret. On a two-week jaunt from the Cook Islands to New Zealand, however, an unexpected El Nino storm drives their sloop, the Vamonos , off course and against a reef, where it is wrecked. The need to survive brings the family together and Chris risks his life to save Margaret when she floats off while trying to rescue the family's water bottle. In an immature moment, father Bob drinks half the remaining water supply, but Margaret takes the lead in replenishing their water by gathering the dew from the dinghy's surface. Other yachters, worried by the Aros family's radio silence, work with officials but find nothing; instead, the family is discovered on a sandbar when a shell-collector chances in their direction. Written by the father, this is a pedestrian account of what is clearly not a routine experience. Photos. (May)