A father, his 9-year-old son, and one of the boy's uncles, attempting their first voyage across the ocean, ran into strong wind that snapped their mast and choppy water that overheated their engine. They attempted to fashion a makeshift sail - but it blew away.
They contacted the Coast Guard, which directed a massive cargo ship to the stranded 38-foot vessel.
"They were adrift with no hope of survival," said James Kelleher, the ship's captain. "Conditions were bad and worsening. We changed course and immediately began running at full speed over to them."
But as the nearly 900-foot cargo ship approached early Wednesday, it caused a swell that sank the sailboat, throwing all three into the water.
Crew members were able to reach the uncle, 29-year-old Mitchell James, and pull him aboard. But father, 32-year-old Bradley James, and son, 9-year-old West James, began to quickly drift away, Kelleher said.
"If one bad thing goes wrong, it just seems like it gets worse and worse and worse and that's what happened," Mitchell James told Hawaii News Now.
Bradley James said he tried to keep his son calm while they were in the cold water for about two hours. Bradley James said that as the boat was destroyed his son said " 'We're gonna sink. We're gonna die.' "
The crew eventually was able to reach them, and an hour after being tossed overboard, they were aboard the ship.
All three arrived to Honolulu on the massive containership early Thursday.
"They're doing great," Kelleher said. "They loved getting a hot meal and a hot breakfast."
Jim Storey, spokesman for Horizon, which owns the containership, said the company would be putting up the trio in a Honolulu hotel.
"They seem happy and grateful," said their brother, Ryan James, from Alberta, Canada, where all three live. "They were scared the whole time."
