We were sailing the Leeward Hawaiian Islands on a scientific expedition in 1979, and got word of a Hurricane turning towards us unexpectedly. Nevertheless, we anchored off the dog's head at the southwestern side of Nihoa in poor holding of coral that demanded a continual watch through the night. Sfter completing our surveys - an incredible place that yielded new species of land snails, as well as some interesting archaeological observations, we left early in the morning as a swell xcame up on us and the leeward side of the island became the windward in the face of the approaching kona storm. During a very bad night we began to take water on the starboard tack, finally discovering a through hull syphon breaker on the electric bilge pump that was lower than the water line. Pretty scary since it was our only bilge pump ( the hand operated one had lost its leathers years ago, and it was all we could do to replace it in that storm. I was the smallest of the crew, so I spent upwards of two hours in the engine compartment trying to replace a stubborn pump barrel. We all survived those two days of seas as we moved back to Kaua'i with the storm, but it was a story I told to a write friend of mine in the weks after we returned to Honolulu. Imagine my surprise when the same story showed up in "Outerbridge Reach", the novel of a single handed sailor who jumps over board during a solo circumnavigation. The writer I told the story to was Robert Stone, the author of "OuterBridge Reach"!