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God Was Their First Mate

The Gastonguay family isn’t a member of any particular denomination or church because, Hannah Gastonguay says, all they need to know is in the Bible, and “The Bible is pretty clear.” The family, from Ash Fork, Ariz., also knew they were dissatisfied with the “state-controlled church” and decided to leave the country. Gastonguay, 26, her husband, Sean, 30, and their two daughters, aged 8 months and 3 years, “decided to take a leap of faith and see where God led us.” They set sail in a small boat from San Diego, Calif. After “a couple of weeks,” a storm damaged their boat and they were adrift for two months. The family “didn’t feel like we were going to die or anything,” she said, because “we believed God would see us through.” When food supplies got down to “some juice and some honey,” a Venezuelan fishing boat rescued them, and handed them over to a Japanese cargo ship on the way to Chile. The U.S. Embassy in Chile got them a flight back home to Arizona, where they hope to “come up with a new plan.” (RC/AP) ...Step one: get a few more things clear.
Author’s Note: I considered slugging the story “A Three Hour Tour (a Three Hour Tourrrr)”. Rather than rely on God to navigate, they actually did have a potential destination in mind: Kiribati. Because, Hannah says, “we didn’t want to go anywhere big,” and they had heard the island nation was “one of the least developed countries in the world.” As of the 2010 census, Ash Fork, Ariz., had 396 people in 2.3 square miles (a density of 199 people/sq mi). In 2010 Kiribati had 103,500 people in its 313 square miles (density: 350/sq mi), so if the Gastonguays wanted something “small,” they already had it.

Ash Fork was established in 1882 as a wide spot along the railroad. It completely burned to the ground in 1885, and was rebuilt on the other side of the railroad tracks. In 1977, half of the downtown burned down in “The Big Fire”; most of the rest burned in another fire 10 years later. In 1992, the movie Universal Soldier was filmed there; the town was chosen specifically for the movie because the buildings were in such bad shape. As part of the movie, a couple of the remaining buildings in town were blown up for the cameras. So yeah: I can certainly understand that anyone could start thinking they were getting a Message From Above to get the ...well... hell out!

Original Publication Date: 11 August 2013
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 20.

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