Suffern’s Lafayette Theater to Screen 76 Days Adrift

The harrowing tail of survival will be followed by a Q&A with Executive Producer Robert Sennot

On Saturday May 3, Lafayette Theater in Suffern will be screening 76 Days Adrift, a documentary chronicling the story of Steve Callahan, a sailor who found himself stranded in a five foot life raft on the open ocean for nearly three months. 76 Days Adrift recounts the night of February 4, 1982, when a catastrophic collision with a whale left Callahan’s boat sinking in the dead of night, leaving the lone sailor with only moments to grab what he could before launching himself into the dark, unforgiving sea in a dinghy, clutching a basic emergency kit.  The film combines interview footage of Callahan, who was able to document his journey using pencils and index cards  smuggled onto  the raft in a tupperware container, with reenactments shot on a body camera  by the documentary crew as they retraced parts of Callahan’s journey from the Mid-Atlantic to the Caribbean. 

“People get a lot out of this movie” said Executive Producer Robert Sennott, a former classmate of Callahan’s. Sennott first heard the story of Callahan’s journey while the sailor was recounting his rescue on the Johnny Carson show. An accomplished documentarian who had previously worked on WBCN and The American Revolution, Sennott found himself continually drawn back to Callahan’s harrowing story  as the years passed, and eventually decided to retell the sailor’s experience for a new generation. Senott and the crew of the documentary shot and edited down over 23 hours of interview footage with Callahan, who had previously recounted his journey in a best selling  Memoir “Adrift 76 Days Lost at Sea”. 

Years after his gruelling ordeal, Callahan has become a legend among the global sailing community. His fateful journey began in Newport, Rhode Island when he launched a 21 foot sloop, which he had built himself, and sailed the boat to Bermuda. From there, Callahan sailed to England and then headed South to the Canary Islands before turning the boat westward to the Caribbean. A week into the crossing his vessel was badly damaged and Callahan was forced to evacuate onto a small life raft and drift the rest of the way to the Americas. 

The raft, which Callahan had named Ducky 3, drifted westward with the South Equatorial Current and the trade winds. Though unable to steer or propel the craft, Callahan was able to chart his course via a sexton cobbled together out of three pencils he was able to recover from his crippled sloop. With the aid of a waterproof map and compass, Callahan was able to track his progress astronautically and was rescued approximately 20 miles away from his estimated destination.  

The voyage very nearly killed him.

Callhan quickly exhausted his food supply and was soon forced to fish for his meals using a cobbled together line that proved inadequate for luring the huge Mahi Mahi that had become his companions throughout the journey. Drawn by the coral that had began to grow on the hull of his dinghy, Callahan formed a symbiotic relationship with the fish, hunting them for nutrition with a spear gun he had bought in Portugal, while they grazed at the bottom of his raft. When his the spear head broke, he was forced to replace it with a dull knife he had first acquired as a boy scout. 

“I was the Mayor of Duckville, and I had to kill some of my subjects” Callahan  told the documentary crew. As he traveled 1,800 nautical miles Callahan survived on only a pint of fresh water a day, his supply gathered from rain water and a small amount of desalinated water generated by a salvaged solar still designed in the 1940s. Callahan was rescued on April 20, 1982 off of the coast  Marie-Galante when local fishers noticed seabirds flying around his craft. Callhan had lost a third of his weight during the grueling journey. 

Having faced sharks, hull breaches, and severe mental strain, Callahan’s amazing story of perseverance has captivated sailors for decades. Saturday’s screening of 76 Days Adrift was first proposed by members of the Nyack Boat Club who invited Sennott  to show the film in Rockland County. 

Callahan’s life affirming story is a lesson in the human capacity for endurance: 76 Days adrift offers audiences a new way to experience the tale, made possible by the efforts of Executive Producer Ang Lee, Director Joe Wein, and composer Patrick Stump of Fallout Boy Fame. The film will play at 7PM, followed by a Q&A with executive producer Robert Sennot.