Bad luck for the family continued when their inflatable lifeboat sank. While the
lifeboat was far from comfortable, it was more capacious than the final boat that the
family had to cram in, which was only 10 feet long. There was only a small section of the
boat that wasn’t always wet, and the family took turns so that everyone had a chance to
sit in the dry seat. The Robertsons were quickly running out of supplies. To make matters
worse, sharks circled their small boat on a regular basis.
The Robertsons had been rowing daily to try to make it back to land, although it was
unlikely that they would be successful. As luck would have it, the family’s small boat was
spotted by a Japanese fishing boat 38 days after the Lucette sank. Initially the crew of the
fishing boat assumed no one was on such a small boat in the middle of the ocean, but
luckily they investigated. The Robertsons were overwhelmed with joy and gratitude for
surviving their harrowing ordeal. Years later, the father wrote a novel telling his family’s story
of survival. He used the money he made from writing the book to buy a boat while the
mother opted to stay behind on their family farm.