John Minnick: A Man to Remember

Armchair Adventures

for March 4, 2012

by Paul Sullivan

ONCE in a while I come across such an unusual story about such an

exceptional person that I would fail my readers not to pass it along.

Today I’m sharing a column I wrote in May 1993 about John Minnick.

Some may remember his son, Don Minnick of Stafford County, who wrote

an outdoors column for The Free Lance–Star from 1993 to 2002.

The events in the original story occurred when John Minnick was 80 years old.

Don said this week that his dad, who remarried 10 years ago, is 98 now

and both he and wife, Barbara, live at an assisted care facility in Houston.

Words such as “heroism,” “integrity” and “honor” seem inadequate to

describe John Minnick.

The 1993 column follows:

A Most Exceptional Example for All

               John Minnick’s feat is not remarkable and heroic because he’s almost 80, nor because he lost an arm to a Japanese mortar on Iwo Jima in 1945.

               What Minnick and his brother, Bruce, did April 12 [1993] to rescue themselves from a shipwreck at sea would have defeated most men half a century younger.

               I spent a couple of hours with Minnick Tuesday afternoon as he recounted his adventure.

               I left inspired.

               Minnick lives in Spotsylvania County’s Summerlake community

off Harrison Road. His brother Bruce, 76, has lived for 27 years in

Belize, a small Central American country on the Caribbean Sea.

Minnick had never been able to visit Belize because of his wife’s

failing health. Last year Frances, his wife of 49 years, succumbed to

a heart condition.

               Last month John Minnick flew to Belize for a visit.

Natives of Great Neck, Long Island, the brothers grew up sailing.

The day after Easter they set out to fish from Bruce’s sailboat in a

large, remote coastal lagoon.

               They spent an enjoyable afternoon, trolling over the stern of the 12-foot boat, until 4 p.m.

               As Bruce turned little Molly Luv II to a new heading, a puff of wind caught the sail. Instead of letting out sail, he held it tight.

               The boat did what sailboats do when held tight into a burst of wind.

It happened like lightning.

               “I went over backwards. I’ve never been so surprised in my life,” said Minnick. “I saw my feet come up over after me.”

Bruce and John are good swimmers—a good thing as they weren’t wearing

life jackets.

               Coolheaded in a crisis, the two men’s first thoughts were for each other’s safety.

               They survived the capsize, but that was just the beginning.

For the next 17 hours, from 4 in the afternoon, through the long night

until 9 the next morning, the brothers cheered one another, pushed the

overturned sailboat and prayed.

               Once, they spotted a boat sent to search for them.

“But we were too low in the water and they never came close,” said Minnick.

               The boat capsized in a shallow lagoon. At first, they could touch bottom. Taking  advantage of that, they removed the sailboat’s mast and rigging, but that spun the craft entirely upside down.

               With no help on the horizon, they set out for the island where Bruce lives, 4½ miles away. Soon the water deepened and Bruce, shorter  than John, could not touch bottom.

               Soon the bottom fell away beneath John, too.

But he found that by holding his breath, he could go down, touch

bottom, spring up and forward enough to shove the boat ahead …

one foot at a time.

               He did that as the sun sank, as nighttime fell over the lagoon and through the long night into the dawn.

               Early in the night they navigated by the lights of Manatee Lodge. “But those lights went out about midnight, and soon after, all the shore lights went out.

               “I was trying to navigate by the stars but as the night went on, they changed position,” said Minnick.

               “The other light was a dim glow in the sky from Belize City, far off to the northeast. We tried to keep that just off our port bow, but the wind kept blowing us off course.”

               As he sank and rose, sank and rose, Minnick often gulped mouthfuls of saltwater. “Every now and then I’d hear Bruce asking whether I was OK. I’d hear him and have to break my rhythm and tell him I was.”

               As long as they did not stray from the shallow lagoon, sharks and alligators would be no problem.

               Thirst was one of their greatest problems. Immersed in water, they

might as well have been in the desert for what good it did them.

Despite the grinding ordeal, Minnick could take no rest. “There wasn’t any way to take a break. We just kept going,” he said.

               As day broke, they found themselves in shallower water on the opposite side of the island where Bruce lives.

               When the boat rolled, they had lost their bailer, but as they entered shallower water they got lucky.

               “We had no bailer, but the Lord provided for us and we saw a big white bucket in the sand,” said Minnick.

               But their incredible ordeal still wasn't over. Half a mile of water lay between them and their destination.

               And so the Minnicks righted Molly Luv II—named for Bruce’s

daughter—bailed her, then re-rigged the little craft and sailed her home!

               They pulled the boat ashore at 11 a.m.—19 hours after their accident.

               Not only had they survived, they had come through unscathed.

               Minnick was thirsty for days afterward. And when he awoke the next morning, his eyes were stuck shut from the briny water.

               Looking back on it, Minnick said, “I got a little bushed” from the ordeal. “I still can’t believe it.”

               It never occurred to him that they might not make it.

“I knew we would make it,” he said.

               I wasn’t too surprised that this gentle, smart and energetic man

should survive so well a test that would kill many others.

               As he walked me through his life’s story—combat hero, lawyer, judge, husband and father, businessman, writer (with a new book in the works)—I knew I was dealing with a most exceptional man.

               And so I asked if he’d go back to see Bruce again. And I asked if he’d go sailing again in the beautiful coastal waters of Belize.

               And I never doubted his answer.

               “Oh sure,”  he told me with a smile, “Bruce is building  a new boat. It’ll be a lot more seaworthy.”