From Plan A to Plan B

Rebellion spurred a family to adventure of a kind they might never have been able to envision. But they did experience it. Never losing faith in the process, despite having placed themselves in life-threatening situations, believing that God would never abandon them. With the young American couple was his father and the couple's two little girls, a three-year-old and an eight-month old. The younger child was not yet born when they all set out to leave the United States.

America represented a country and a nation whose values, priorities and prospects for God beaming down on them with approval were dim indeed. Hannah Gastonguay, 26, her 30-year-old husband Sean, and Sean's father Mike, along with three-year-old Ardith and baby Rahab did not much approve of "abortion, homosexuality, in the state-controlled church". That being an indelible fact of their life there, they decided to leave the country.

And they would do so in their own inimitable way, heading for an improbable destination, yet all would fall into place as it should, because they had faith. They left their home in north Arizona in November to live until spring on their boat docked in a slip at San Diego harbour. Preparing to set sail, provisioning the boat, setting their destination, and the while living on the boat, Hannah gave birth to baby Rahab before deciding to set their course for an exotic destination.

In May they determined it was time to set out. And for three months and more they were on the high seas. "We were cruising", said the doughty young mother of two infants. A few weeks later prospects had changed, the friendly seas becoming decidedly less so: "...When we came out there, storm, storm, storm."

They were on a course to take them to Kiribati, a group of islands off the equator close by the international date line halfway between Hawaii and Australia.

Why Kiribati? Who has ever heard of Kiribati? What does anyone know about Kiribati? What would they do in Kiribati? How would they manage to live in Kiribati? What would become of their children in Kiribati? They chose Kiribati because "we didn't want to go anywhere big." They'd done their homework; the island was "one of the least developed countries in the world".

There they could live naturally, closer to God.

Little did they anticipate that their journey would be "pretty exciting", and on occasion more than a "little scary at certain points". Now that would appear to be an understatement of monumental proportions. But then, it would appear that Hannah Gastonguay is not readily fazed; the kind of person prepared to face adversity and pray for the best.

While their boat was being tossed about in frightening weather, they decided to sail for the Marquesas Islands. Finding themselves in the process in a "twilight zone", their boat sustaining increasing damage, unable to make any progress. They feared using a sail, making the mast vulnerable to snapping off in the weather conditions. Losing their radio and communication facility would have been a catastrophe they figured.

By this time they had been ocean-bound for two months, and supplies had dwindled to virtually nothing. No food was left, they had only "some juice and some honey". Which was supplemented by fish they caught. And no other ships in sight to offer a measure of helpfulness, perhaps rescue from their predicament.

"Still, we didn't feel like we were going to die or anything. We believed God would see us through."

On came "squall after squall after squall". But, evidently, no panic ensued among the sturdy adventurers. A fishing ship came by eventually, but was unable to provide help. A cargo ship came along as well, offering supplies, but the vessels smashed together and their smaller boat sustained more damage in the process.

"We were in the thick of it, but we prayed. Being out on that boat, I just knew I was going to see some miracles". They did. The storms finally dissipated, and "next thing you know the sun is out. It's amazing." At a guess she never read The Life of Pi.

Finally, rescue when a helicopter from a Venezuelan fishing vessel spotted them. "The captain said, 'Do you know where you're at? You're in the middle of nowhere'."

Hannah Gastonguay, holding her baby Rahab, is followed by her husband Sean and the couple's 3-year-old daughter Ardith, (AP Photo/Las Ultimas Noticias)

They spent five days on the Venezuelan fishing vessel, transferred to a Japanese cargo ship, spending three weeks on it, before approaching San Antonio, Chile. Hannah Gastonguay explained her family is prepared now to "go back to Arizona" to enable them to "come up with a new plan". Their flights home arranged by U.S. Embassy officials in Chile.

As to a new plan presenting itself at some future date; God will most certainly have a hand in it. His gracious self must surely take pity on the innocent and the dim-witted; prepared to patiently save them from themselves.