Good evening.
As you said, my name is Philip McDonald, and I survived the sinking of the Melina and Keith II on September 12, 2005. This was a day when whatever could go wrong did go wrong. While hitting turbulence at Cape Bonavista, the Melina and Keith II dipped her starboard railing a couple of times, flooding the entire deck in water. Then she listed over to the starboard, and water swamped her. The entire crew on deck scrambled across the deck and up the ladder. We then had to walk across the windows and doors of the wheelhouse. We attempted to release one of the life rafts but were unsuccessful, as the hull began turning upside down.
As the vessel was rolling over, we kept stepping back until she was completely upside down and all eight were standing on the hull in utter shock. The skipper managed to get an immersion suit for himself. However, the rest of us were in our working gear, in boots and oil clothes. I remember looking at my watch after I saw the EPIRB drift by, flashing its light on and off. It was 3:27 p.m. There was no mayday sent off, and the EPIRB was our only hope.
A couple of minutes later, the EPIRB signal--