Our friend, Greg James, dies in boating accident one mile from harbor

Mooloolaba, Australia, 18-May-2020 — Jennifer and I had texted Greg the previous few days discussing what he expected to happen when he arrived unannounced in his 34-foot sail boat in Australia.

We watched his progress as his inreach satellite phone posted on the web. We teased him when it appeared his boat was in the surf off Mooloolaba, the site of a large marina. We figured Greg had carried his sat phone with him ashore in his pocket. When the posting stopped, we were certain he’d turned it off. Had the aussie border people taken exception to his arrival, we laughed.

But, Greg was dead by then.

Jennifer was keeping an eye in the media looking for mentions of an American who shows up unannounced at a closed border. Instead, she found a Facebook-group post from an American living there.

This last text makes us sick when we think about what was going on at that moment.

The post was a link to an Australian Broadcast Company post about Alcobri, Greg’s boat, washed up on the beach, through the surf and finding his body 500 meters offshore.

We met Greg initially at the police dock in San Diego. We were there making repairs and deciding whether to cross to Hawaii. The three of us spoke a few times. Greg planned to sail to Mexico.

A week after we arrived in Hilo, Greg motored in dropping an anchor in the center of Radio Bay.

We got to know Greg there. He’d sailed into Mexican waters, then changed his mind and decided to sail to Hawaii. He was casual about his decision and seemed very casual about weather along the way.

Greg had made some safety modifications to his boat by installing mounting points for a drogue for foul weather and fixed guard rails in place of lifelines.

Greg had been the fire inspector for his town, Sun Valley Idaho, before working out a retirement pension deal and heading off sailing.

Greg left Hilo, when we did, heading north to the other islands, anchoring out. He had no insurance, so marinas were pretty much off limits.

We lost track when my father died and picked up the thread when we returned in February. Greg was in the Marshall Islands, of all places. Very quiet, nothing going on.

Though COVID hit the rest of the world, the Marshall Islands did not have a single case. Greg was asked to tell other boats not to come.

After a while the boredom was more than he could stand, so he set sail for Australia. He was casual about what might happen when he arrived.

Here in Hawaii we all guessed what might happen. He’d be safe and ashore, so nothing could go really wrong.

After Jennifer found the post I managed to find a number for the local coast guard there and spoke with Mike. The water police were in charge and had gone home for the night. A second seaman had lost his life falling off a commercial fishing boat. Everyone was beat.

Greg had fallen off his boat while dropping his mainsail.

Mike called me mate, gave me his condolences. They were sincere and the first confirmation that this was real. He told me not to worry, Greg was safe and would be taken care of. *


*I initially gave Mike some misinformation, telling him that Greg belonged to the fire company in Roseville California. I called back to correct that. He was the Sun Valley Idaho city fire inspector.

They will most likely call me later today. They are 22 hours ahead.

The sailor who posted the ABC news story has offered to be the liaison there, as has our Lee’s Landing marina-mate, Christian Redd.

I also contacted ABC news and the local newspaper by email. Jennifer has found links to his family members. What do we do with this info?

Author: johnjuliano

One-third owner of Caro Babbo, co-captain and in command whenever Caro Babbo is under sail.

14 thoughts on “Our friend, Greg James, dies in boating accident one mile from harbor”

    1. Very sad to hear of the loss of your friend. Courage to you both! Peace to Greg!

  1. Oh John and Jennifer- we are so so sorry to read this about your friend. All of us can immediately put ourselves right where he was -taking down a sail after a passage. Crushing.
    Please take care of yourselves today. Big hugs.

    1. It is a reminder of how fragile life is and why we use jack lines. I don’t yet know cause of death. A mutual friend tells us he was having self steering issues, so it is possible he had a jibe, which knocked him over board.

    2. The family has instructed the police in Australia not to do an autopsy, so a final cause of death will remain unknown. From my conversation with the police it sounds as if Greg drowned. He may have been knocked unconscious or from exhaustion. The latter is unpleasant to contemplate. Although he was wearing a harness, he was not clipped in and was not wearing a life jacket (PFD).

      Other comments tell a bit about his family. They have asked me to break off contact with the press and have spoken to me about privacy, so I will not pass on contact info for them. I expect eventually they will find this page, so I guess you can express condolences here.

      Jennifer was closer to Greg than I was and has taken this fairly hard. Over the past four years we have had a number of passings, which have taken a toll.

      The loss in Greg’s family is unimaginable.

  2. John what has me beat is why he did not turn tail and head for Bundaberg which is a Port of entry?
    We have had strong southerly’s for a number of days so Bundaberg is the logical choice not beating into the wind to get to a port with no customs or immigration? I think he might have been in for a world of trouble if he had arrived. It’s not like he could have claimed ignorance?

    We will never know his reasoning now but it all seems pretty strange to me?

    Cheers

    1. Drew,

      Greg had no permission to enter, nor had he notified anyone he was coming. As you saw in the message exchange, he was just going to see what would happen. We figured in the worst case he would lose his boat and spend some time in detention of some sort and then be deported once international flights open up. Best case, they would just process him and keep him on his boat.

      He seemed to just want to see what would happen. He was that kind of guy who would make a decision on a whim and execute it.

      I viewed it as no matter what happened there would be no risk to his personal safety.

      I’m trying to learn actual cause of death. The US Gov’t hasn’t notified next of kin yet. It is 10pm on the east coast of the US the day after his death.

      It will be a while before it is real. I have been speaking to the ABC about him, and expected the water police would have called by now, as they said they would. But there is the commercial seaman that died. I think that should take precedent in terms of resources.

  3. John the human psyche is very interesting. Greg being a city fire inspector his whole career would have been about rules yet he decides to turn up here unannounced and not even in the correct Port of entry. It’s a guess what would have happened to him. Aussies can be pretty laid back, but who knows in these times?
    Sad end to voyage by a competent sailor.
    Cheers

    1. Drew,

      I wonder if, being an inspector, you come to view rules differently. Jennifer has bought and sold real estate her entire life. She is second generation. She looks at houses so differently that I ever did. I view a house as something one lives in, not a commodity to be traded.

      I don’t know. I wonder if after a while you stop really caring as you learn so many rules are ignored and nothing really happens. That the process of seeing what would happen, if he did this, made it worth doing. And, no matter what happened it would be better than sitting at anchor somewhere. Without insurance, he could not come into any marina in Hawaii, and there is no anchoring out here. The anchorages are terrible and one must keep moving. (He did have the money for insurance… so there are riddles here.)

      It is too early, realistically to head back up to the Pacific Northwest.

      We believe we’ve spoken to the people that he would have told these answers to, and they do not know.

  4. John, I’m an American Ex pat living near Mooloolaba. I grew up in a sailing town, so when I heard about your friend, I thought I’d look into it, in case I might know who he was. I do not.

    However, interestingly, I also lived in Sun Valley, Idaho prior to moving to Australia. I think ABC news said that the US consulate was being contacted to find his family. Sun Valley is a small place and someone there might know more. The local newspaper is called The Idaho Mountain Express. They could possibly help. I’m not to sure there would be a “city fire inspector“, but you could call the city of Sun Valley or the Sun Valley Fire Department. I’m guessing he was a consultant to insurance companies for the area. Sorry for your loss and I hope this is helpful.

    1. Hi Dana,

      Thanks for contacting me. I did get in contact with the city of Sun Valley before the State Department found Greg’s sister. So much of the government had turned over (Mayor, Fire Chief, etc.) that I only found one person who remembered him. That person did not know his family.

      Sgt Greg Hargreaves did contact me when the state department contacted Greg’s sister – she is now the last of three siblings. She asked me to break off contact with the press, which I have done. A man named Kevin McBee, who is a bluewater sailor and living aboard in Mooloolaba, has offered to be the family’s person on the ground. I have passed his info on, but do not know if they will take him up on he offer.

      His sister and family must still be in shock over this. Like us, they were in frequent content as Greg was approaching Australia. She is not part of the community so did not know what happened until the US Gov’t contacted her.

      Her pain must be immense.

  5. Dear John, I am so grateful you have kept track of your fellow sailor. I knew Greg well. His last permanent residence was here in Kirkland, Washington. Where he had resided for at least 10 years that I know of. He was a property manager of 5 large properties in Kirkland. With his actual residence at the apartment community where I still reside today.
    Greg was truly an amazing man with the kindest heart. He would do anything for anyone. Although he admitted to being a bit of a loner. And when Greg allowed me an exception to adopt a large dog at our property, I brought home, Jake, a big but mellow border collie. Jake & Greg became instant best buddies and went everywhere together. But I’m sure both their hearts were broken when Greg felt it the right time to retire and follow his dream. That was in 2017. He had bought a sailboat a few months earlier and set sail out of Kirkland. Via Lake Washington out to Puget Sound and beyond. Not many in our Kirkland community had heard from Greg after he left. Greg and I were close friends but Greg’s true love was my dog, Jake. We never heard from him again since that day in May of 2017. For Jakes sake, I always held a little hope that he would return someday. So we are terribly saddened at this loss of our quiet but amazing friend. RIP Greg James ⛵️

  6. I am so sorry to hear of this tragedy. I did not know Greg but I know Alcobri. I was the previous owner from Roche Harbor Washington. I became aware today as I was searching through old messages. The Australian authorities had tried to contact me to identify the new owner.

    1. Randy, we’ve just reached port. Thus it’s a difficult thing to understand. It made us

        very

      safety conscious on our passage.

      I don’t know what happened to the boat. Greg’s sister, Hope, was very privacy oriented. I will try tui reach out to her.

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