A cold, abrupt end to a honeymoon
By: DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer
Encinitas couple that fled Witch Creek fire returns home after cruise ship sinks off Antarctica | ∞
The ecotourist cruise ship MS Explorer rests on the iceberg it struck near Antarctica on Nov. 23. The 154 people on board, including Encinitas residents and newlyweds Trevor Takayama and Torrey Trust, were rescued by a luxury liner after shivering in the freezing weather for four or five hours.
Photo courtesy of Torrey Trust
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ENCINITAS -- Three times since marrying June 11 in a beachside ceremony at La Jolla Cove, Trevor Takayama and Torrey Trust have dodged disaster.
In August, the Encinitas couple fled an approaching hurricane while camping in a Costa Rican rain forest, on a summerlong honeymoon tour of Central and South America.
In October, the Witch Creek fire forced the newlyweds to evacuate the hilltop three-bedroom home she grew up in, near Manchester Avenue and El Camino Real in Encinitas.
Then, the day after Thanksgiving, rescuers plucked them from a lifeboat after the ecotourist cruise ship they shared with 152 others rammed an iceberg and slowly sank into the sea off Antarctica.
"We keep it interesting," joked Torrey Trust, 22, a recent UC San Diego film production graduate, in an interview Wednesday.
But after shivering in subfreezing temperatures for four or five hours in a lifeboat until a luxury cruise ship responded to the sinking MS Explorer's distress call, the honeymooners are glad to be back in San Diego County. They flew home Tuesday night.
"It's so good to be back," said Trevor Takayama, a 26-year-old biochemist. "When we got back it was sunny and 70. It was sunny and maybe 30 there."
The ecology-oriented cruise around Antarctica was part two of their global honeymooning tour. It was something Takayama's young wife had wanted to do for a long time.
"I really like penguins," Trust said. And, she said, "I wanted to see the ice before it melts because of global warming."
Little did she know, as it turned out, that global warming would possibly play a role in cutting short the cruise on the 12th day of what was to be a 19-day voyage.
In an Associated Press report of the rescue, Guillermo Tarapow, captain of the Argentine navy icebreaker Almirante Irizar said he had seen a huge increase in the number of icebergs roaming in the waters off Antarctica the last two decades. And he blamed climate change for that.
Takayama, who obtained a biochemistry degree from UC San Diego in 2003, said, "They say a lot more ice is coming out now, especially from the shelves."
Trust said the couple saw many icebergs.
"We saw one that was 26 nautical miles long that they believe was a part of the Larsen Ice Shelf that had broken off and had already drifted off to sea," Trust said. "It was still big and penguins were living on it."
Trust said the Explorer began its trek at Ushuaia, a port on the southern tip of Argentina. The ship cruised past the Falkland Islands as well as the icy continent of Antarctica.
According to G.A.P. Adventures of Toronto, the ship's owner, the voyage was inspired by the polar travels of Ernest Shackleton, the famed expedition leader who made repeated forays there before dying of a heart attack while trying to sail around the continent in 1922.
On this month's voyage, Trust and Takayama visited a beach on the Falkland Islands that is home to a half million black-browed albatross, followed southern right whales for hours and saw countless penguins on Antarctica.
"The wildlife was just so incredible," Trust said. "And the glaciers and the scenery were just unbelievable."
Everything was environmentally oriented. The ship avoided dumping human waste, according to Trust. Each day's events included four lectures on wildlife and a movie. One night, Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" filled the screen.
Trust was having the time of her life. So it was hard to believe when, at about midnight on Thanksgiving night, an obnoxiously loud alarm went off.
"Next thing we knew, the captain's yelling, 'Abandon ship, abandon ship!' over the loudspeaker," she Trust said. "And we were rushed into lifeboats."
There was nowhere to go.
"We had oars," Trust said. "But it was absolutely pointless to use them." She said the boats were packed so tightly with human bodies that oars could not be turned to move them.
Passengers and crew members huddled and waited in the darkness and cold. It helped that it was summer in the Southern Hemisphere, as the sun soon rose. Still, it was eerie looking over at the Explorer, still resting partly on the iceberg it had struck.
For a moment, Trust said, her thoughts flashed to a scene in the "Titanic" movie of the ship disaster that occurred nearly a century ago. But there was a huge difference: While the Titanic broke up and disappeared quickly from sight, the Explorer just sat there, sinking ever so slowly. And everyone safely made it to a lifeboat.
Around 7 a.m. or so, the 154 who had been aboard the Explorer were rescued by a cruise ship and taken to the Chilean Air Force Base on Antarctica. After spending the night in cots in a gymnasium, they were flown to Punta Arenas, Chile, on a Hercules C-130 military cargo plane.
Then Trust and Takayama flew home.
As chilling as the ordeal was, Trust said, "The fire was way more traumatic." After all, the 198,000-acre Witch Creek blaze forced the couple to evacuate for three days in October, as they sat by a television anxiously awaiting news of their home's fate.
"I grew up in this house. It was built a month before I was born," she said. "We had no idea where the fire was."
-- Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (760) 745-6611, Ext. 2623, or ddowney@nctimes.com.
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Glad all are safe wrote on Nov 29, 2007 1:32 AM:Glad this couple and all passengers are safe Terrible loss for the ship's owner Was this couple (and others) able to pack their valuables, especially photo equipment, passports, etc? Would be educational to see a video of the icebergs whales, penguins, Antarctica coast, etc.
MJ wrote on Nov 29, 2007 6:09 AM:So...... I wonder what the "carbon footprint" was for that little eco-voyage. Get a clue, the "green" movement is about the color of money!
Keith wrote on Nov 29, 2007 6:56 AM:Incredible story and fotos, Glad to hear everybody including yourself made it to safety.
esteban wrote on Nov 29, 2007 7:51 AM:who cares?
TIMMYYYYY wrote on Nov 29, 2007 8:10 AM:This story is days, if not a week old. NCTimes, did you just get off the short bus?
Chris wrote on Nov 29, 2007 8:29 AM:This story is a perfect example of one-sided reporting. The author fails to report that the carbon footprint of this sunken ship with 83000 gallons of fuel oil spilling into antartica is the real story. The damage done is huge and is totally laughable since it was the ECO cruise ship that did it. I wonder if the couple still had "the time of their lives" when they realize they horribly damaged the very place they came to falsely feel good about. How ironic, and how convienent that the author missed that part.
Matt wrote on Nov 29, 2007 8:34 AM:Dear North County Times, you don't need to find the "North County Connection" to everything that happens in the world. That some people from Encinitas were on this boat--and got off safely--is not news.
Euphoric Reality wrote on Nov 29, 2007 8:42 AM:Ha! An 'eco-friendly' luxury ship my arse. This 'eco-friendly' ocean liner will pollute Antarctica from the bottom of the ocean for decades to come. I suppose that the important thing is that these eco-tourists had 'good intentions' even though their cruise ship will leak oil and fuel onto the penguin colonies for years and years. Well, maybe those penguins can at least enjoy a copy or two of Al Gore's DVD 'An Inconvenient Truth' even though the movies are covered in toxic waste goo from the sunken 'eco-friendly' cruise ship. Maybe the real haedline of this news story should be 'Eco-tourists create a mini Exxon Valdez environmental disaster in Antarctica.' ... Smug environmentalist yuppies think that they are so superior to the average American. Yet, they and their liberal cohorts in Hollywood and in politics wreak lots of damage onto the environment with their huge mansions, gas guzzling limousines and wasteful learjets. Thanks a lot 'eco-tourists'...your sunken cruise ship will be polluting the ocean for decades. How will you 'eco-tourists' make this up with offsetting carbon credits? That's a whole lof of credit. Sleep well at night tree huggers. Your sunken crusie ship leaves a fitting environmental legacy to your hypocrisy and double standards.
Irony wrote on Nov 29, 2007 9:02 AM:The ecotourists managed to deposit a fully loaded cruise ship into the sea... Oil, human waste, and all. The polar bears and penguins are crying.
SterlingCARES wrote on Nov 29, 2007 10:02 AM:If only I had been an invited guest, fully paid for by the bride and groom, I could and I would have prevented this calamity. I am, after all, the People's Choice! Time and time again, I have successfully navigated the dark and stormy waters of the monthly Tri-City Hospital board and committee meetings! My experience dealing with the cold floes of human relations is unparalleled. Icebergs are a cakewalk in comparison!
Jason760 wrote on Nov 29, 2007 10:25 AM:Matt- If this isn't news then why do you bother reading it, and then leaving a comment. The reason the NCT writes these stories is because we are interested in them, and therfore read them. When yoi hear of a story from another part of the worl and someone from NC is involved, it hit closer to home.
BEATI wrote on Nov 29, 2007 11:09 AM:Why is it that these eco-warriors manage to damage the the planet more by running around screaming the sky is falling.( like Al Gore flying his private jets) Now tons of oil,human waste, and birkenstocks are polluting antartica!
Concerned-1 wrote on Nov 29, 2007 12:29 PM:We seem to have a dearth of eco-tourists and eco-terrorists, not to mention eco-entrepreneurs. I blame it all on global warming!
esteban wrote on Nov 29, 2007 1:14 PM:The esteban post that reads, "who cares" was not made by me. It was that gutless imposter again. Good going ...!!!
esteban wrote on Nov 29, 2007 3:50 PM:Hey, I'm a third party. My name is esteban. Butt out.
North county kID wrote on Nov 29, 2007 3:52 PM:That word eco-tourists screams oxymoron, especially when it's associated with cruise ship. I'm certainly not taking anything away from the couples intent, i'm sure they're good people with good environmental intentions :)
Pay up wrote on Nov 29, 2007 4:34 PM:Al Gore should send the ships crew and passengers an invoice for off-setting carbon credits, and if they pay it they can still say they are saving the world.
Ships Aren't 'Eco' wrote on Nov 29, 2007 4:49 PM:Remember how some folks were against allowing Mexican trucks cross the border, due to questions on whether those trucks were as well maintained and therefore as safe as US trucks? It's kind of the same thing with ships. If you have a leaky, aging rustbucket, you just register it in some country with easy regulations (like Liberia)--then you're free to sail it wherever you want. Such as to Antarctica. The MS Explorer was built almost 20 years ago as a reasearch vessel for the Soviet Union, and has had five changes of ownership since then. The website for the ship's latest owners describes it as quite a luxurious ship, but doesn't say where the ship is registered.
Hey Irony wrote on Nov 29, 2007 7:37 PM:Was that ship full of polar bears, too? Just wondering how they got there to be sad with all the penguins that you mentioned in your muy intelligente post.
- wrote on Nov 30, 2007 2:53 AM:I don't want to be near this couple. They seem to be jinxed.
esteban wrote on Nov 30, 2007 7:34 AM:can't the esteban's in the wold just get along
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