DATE: Sunday, October 26, 1997              TAG: 9710260050

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   79 lines

NAVY RESCUES 2 SAILORS FROM BATTERED SLOOP WINDS, HIGH SEAS THWARTED STRUGGLE TO REACH BERMUDA.

With their mast severed, the boat's engine useless, and wind and seas having turned against them, two Massachusetts men were left to wonder if a five-day struggle to reach safety in Bermuda had failed.

``It was pretty damned much like hell,'' said David Dietz, 32, of Nantucket Island, the captain of the storm-battered sloop Glou Glou.

On Saturday afternoon, however, he found hope in the sky as a Navy aircraft winged into view. And, shortly after, salvation arrived in the form of the Norfolk-based Aegis cruiser Thomas S. Gates.

Dietz and his shipmate, Eric Humphreys, 24, also of Nantucket Island, were in Capt. Paul Rosbolt's cabin Saturday night, telling their tale and offering thanks to the crew of the Gates for making certain it had a happy ending.

The Glou Glou, en route to Bermuda, was overrun by a severe storm Monday about 250 miles north of the island, Dietz said in a satellite-telephone interview from the Gates. Seas up to 50 feet tossed the vessel around like a leaf in rapids, at one point rolling it 360 degrees.

The mast of the 30-foot sloop snapped. The hatch cover was ripped off. Debris punched holes in the vessel. Supplies and gear were lost. Drinking water was contaminated. Everything was torn asunder.

A distress beacon was activated at 11 a.m., but with no way to know if anyone would hear it, Dietz and Humphreys made the repairs they could and tried to stay on course.

``We got the engine running for a while, and that got us 30 to 40 miles,'' Dietz said. The shaft broke, however, and the screw stalled. Undeterred, they took the sloop's damaged spinnaker and rigged it as a mainsail. That paid off with another 200 miles over four days.

On Saturday morning, however, just short of Bermuda, nature took a second swing at the Glou Glou.

``The wind shifted and came so hard out of the south that there was no way with our handmade rig that we could make it,'' Dietz said. They began losing ground.

Far over the horizon, however, their electronic call for help had finally found ears. An S-3 anti-submarine plane was sent aloft from the homeward-bound, Norfolk-based carrier John F. Kennedy.

Within minutes, the pilot spotted the heavily damaged sloop with two men aboard, waving frantically.

The carrier signaled the Gates, which was about 25 miles from Bermuda. It had just picked up crew members' children for the final leg of its trip home to Norfolk from a six-month Mediterranean deployment with the Kennedy battle group.

The warship set course for the stricken vessel, 20 miles to its west.

``We cranked off at 30 knots and were in the vicinity about 30 to 40 minutes later,'' Rosbolt said.

The Gates launched a small inflatable boat to retrieve the sailors.

``It was pretty hairy at first,'' said Senior Chief Ray Perry, 37, of Portsmouth, one of two aboard the rescue craft. Seas were rolling at 10 feet, he said, with winds of 30 to 35 mph whipping across the area.

``We tried to go alongside, but we decided it was too dangerous to try and get them on board,'' Perry said. What was needed was a shield. Say, a 567-foot-long windbreak.

Perry radioed the Gates, and Rosbolt turned his ship lengthwise against the wind, providing the calmer seas needed around the Glou Glou.

The rescue boat moved in.

``As soon as we got alongside, they told us they were ready to abandon ship,'' said Michael Marsden, 29, of Virginia Beach. ``Their boat looked like it had been through a lot.''

Dietz said the rescue was more than welcome.

``At any point in time, with so many holes on the deck and the main hatch gone, any time after we set the (distress) beacon on Monday, we would have been happy to get picked up.''

Rosbolt, 40, said he was impressed by the men's seamanship.

``He did a heck of a job. . . . To have taken the kind of roll he did and still jury-rig something and get that close (to Bermuda) is commendable,'' Rosbolt said. ``I would not have been a happy camper on that thing.''

Although the Glou Glou was lost, left to its fate in rough seas, Dietz said he'll sail again.

``I've got 1,186 days offshore, not including this trip,'' he said. ``I've done it for years, and I'll keep doing it.''

Dietz and Humphreys are due to arrive in Norfolk Monday. KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT BOAT RESCUE U.S. NAVY

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