Jeff Kingstad Article

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http://www.madison.com/tct/news/index.p ... 57&ntpid=1

Doug Moe: Rescued at sea, reunited in Spain

By Doug Moe
September 3, 2005

WHEN JEFF KINGSTAD first spotted Isaac Casals at the train station in Gijon, Spain, a couple of weeks ago - spotted him for the first time in more than 20 years - he gave him a big hug.

It wasn't just the two decades of separation. Anytime you cross paths with the man who saved your life, shouldn't you give him a hug?

Over some wonderful late night dinners in Spain, with wine flowing freely, the two friends told and retold the story that first brought them together. It's a story of a sailboat, a freighter and a storm in the Gulf of Mexico.

Kingstad, 52, is a West Allis Hale High School graduate who came to Madison in the early 1970s and walked onto Bob Perrin's UW track team without a scholarship. Kingstad had come relatively late to pole vaulting, but he was a natural. By 1974, when Kingstad was a senior, he won the Big Ten conference championship.

It was pole vaulting that took Kingstad to Spain last month. He picked up the sport again several years ago after a long layoff and now is one of the top senior pole vaulters in the world. In August, San Sebastian played host to the World Masters Athletics Championship.



In the decades between his collegiate championship and taking up the sport again as a senior, Kingstad lived a life right out of a Jimmy Buffett song. He had worked summers as a lifeguard in Wisconsin, and he loved scuba diving, so one of the places he sent his resum on graduating UW-Madison was Windjammer Sail Cruises. To his surprise and delight, they responded with a job offer to teach scuba diving to the cruise passengers. Expecting to stay a year, Kingstad stayed nearly 20, based in the Cayman Islands. Several years ago, when their kids reached school age, Jeff and his wife, Janelle, moved back to Wisconsin, where they operate a small resort, Sportsman's, north of Minocqua. They also own rental homes in the Caymans, which you can check out at jeffsresorts.com.

It was fairly early in the Cayman years, February 1984, when a friend approached Kingstad and asked if he'd be interested in helping take a 37-foot Morgan sailboat from Grand Cayman Island to Naples, Fla., via Cozumel, Mexico.

"I felt like doing some sailing, so I said yes," Kingstad was recalling Friday. He's in Madison this weekend for the induction of his old track and field buddy, Mark Winzenreid, into the W Club Hall of Fame.

The sail to Cozumel was uneventful if you didn't count the schools of dolphin that skimmed the surface and provided a breathtaking show. Once in Cozumel, however, they had to sit out a cold front that took several days to pass. Once they set sail for Naples, it was clear the front hadn't passed altogether. The winds were brisk. It wasn't anything like a hurricane, but it got your attention. Kingstad recalled that on his watch it was like riding a bull to keep the boat on course.

Kingstad was sleeping when he heard the crash. Another of the four-person crew had fallen asleep while on watch, the boat had turned in the wrong direction, and the mast had snapped. They were still upright, so there was no need to panic. The captain called in a mayday, and they began running on engine power.

There was only, however, so much fuel. That problem was helped somewhat when a huge cargo ship spotted them, gave them extra fuel and said they would let the Coast Guard know where they were.

Kingstad estimates they were some 90 miles from the Dry Tortugas, in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, when the engine died. Still, they weren't overly concerned. Surely the Coast Guard would come any minute. But minutes became hours and the Coast Guard was nowhere to be seen.

They were discussing rationing food and water when another huge freighter, the Pola de Laviana, 17 days out of Spain and headed for Mexico, came over the horizon. The captain was one of the youngest Spaniards ever to attain the position - Isaac Casals had captained his first ship at age 26.

Casals expertly maneuvered beside the helpless sailboat. A rope ladder was tossed down. Kingstad and the others scrambled up. The sailboat, which had been taking on water, was abandoned to the deep. Captain Casals told them he had received word from the Coast Guard to be on the lookout for a disabled boat.

"We went from rags to riches," Kingstad said. There were dinners at the captain's table and, once the ship docked in Mexico, Casals helped cut through the red tape that would allow the shipwrecked crew to return to the Caymans. "He was a rare character," Kingstad said of the captain. "Always smiling."

Between Casals and Kingstad a friendship had formed. There were promises to stay in touch, and for a while they did, trading holiday cards and pictures. As often happens, they eventually lost contact. But a year ago, when Kingstad noted that a huge Masters track and field meet was scheduled for Spain, a friend who knew the story urged Jeff to try to find his friend Casals.

He turned out to be teaching at a navigational school in the north of Spain. In an e-mail exchange, Casals told Kingstad that of course he remembered him. He told the story of the rescue often, and his extended family knew it by heart.

Stepping off the train in Gijon, Kingstad at first didn't see his friend, but then there he was. Casals, at 56, was a bit more stout, but there was no mistaking the smile. They hugged and slapped each other on the back.

The next few days were not altogether different than the days when they first met aboard the freighter. Kingstad stayed at the Casals home. There was wine, smiles, food and friendship. "It was like time had disappeared," Kingstad said.