With help from locals, British man whose ship ran aground has sights set on sailing home
Published 8:04 am Saturday, May 10, 2025
The vessel Acid Rain has washed ashore in Johnson Bayou. (Ashlynn Little / American Press)
Alex Carter with his cat, Patches. (Special to the American Press)
Alex Carter goes through what's left of his belongings that had been aboard the Acid Rain.(Ashlyn Little / American Press)
By Ashlyn Little
Alex Carter, born and raised on a farm in the United Kingdom, never imagined he’d wind up in Louisiana. But a sailing trip gone awry has brought him to the Bayou State.
Carter’s love for sailing began in his 20s. He and a friend had a tiny inflatable dinghy and would adventure in the Channel Islands on their work breaks. They made a pact that one day they would sail to Asia. Time marched on and while Carter’s friend eventually started a family, Carter never gave up the dream.
“I don’t know why it stuck, but I wanted to do it still and I kept working towards it,” Carter said.
Carter, now 39, bought a bigger boat — around 30 feet — and began sailing it around the UK and nearby waters. He then longed for a larger boat and found Acid Rain abandoned in a state of disrepair in a boatyard for sale.
“There was something so special about Acid Rain when I climbed on board with my brother. It’s hard to explain but often boat people say this kind of stuff but the boat chose me. There was something really homey about it and very cozy, I wanted it to be my home,” Carter said.
Years later, he found out why the 11-ton steel ketch vessel was special — in the 1990 “Cape to Rio Race” across the southern Atlantic, Acid Rain was skippered by one deaf man and two blind men. This race marked the first time a blind person completed the race. The name “Acid Rain” was used due to acid rain being a climate change issue in 1990 and was used to bring awareness during the race.
Carter worked quickly to get Acid Rain back on the water. He welded and patched all the rusted holes and rebuilt the engine, along with the help of his brother.
“Initially when I started working on Acid Rain people would laugh and say I would never get this boat out of the boatyard, but I was working as a baker and then in the evenings and on my days off I would work on rebuilding this boat,” Carter said. Eventually the same people who laughed at him, began helping him restore her.
Carter would work steadily on the boat for six months. Though it wasn’t quite finished, he sailed her from the boatyard in Torpoint to his hometown in Falmouth, England — a two-hour drive but a 12-hour sail.
Carter would continue to work on it for more than a year at home and eventually took it trips, the first big one being around Britain up to Scotland and Ireland, a trip that was roughly three months.
“This three-month trip was kind of like proving ground for Acid Rain and myself. I had my partner with me and we did it together,” Carter said.
Following the 90-day trip he decided to sail around the world and get into Asia. When he lost his job during the COVID-19 pandemic, that’s when he seized the opportunity to sail.
He sailed off in Falmouth to start his journey around the world and it took him two years to get to Guatemala. Often he was alone for portions of the trip and other times he’d have crew aboard.
“After COVID there was no money and it sounds crazy but I was running this boat on 50 Euros a month to cover my cost. I was able to get my own food by eating the fish or if it was low tide, clams, muscles and those kinds of things and that’s how I was living,” Carter explained.
Carter kept staples on board like flour, rice and tea to make meals. To save money, he would never sail her into a port. Instead he would drop his anchor on small islands and take his dinghy if need be. He was advised by one of his crew members to join a sailboat hitchhiker’s group on Facebook. Once he joined, he charged 15 Euros a day for people to get on the boat and learn all about sailing, spearfishing and more.
“I wasn’t charging to make money, it was more so to cover cost and food and just meant I could continue the adventure without running out of money,” Carter said.
Sometimes people would stay a couple days and sometimes for months at a time and get off somewhere else and either fly home or continue their own trip at the next destination. Carter said a large majority of the people boarding on Acid Rain wanted to come because they were struggling with life for some reason or another and wanted an experience.
“They would come on and have these sailing experiences where there were no phones, internet and they were able to recover and like find their purpose in life,” Carter said.
In January 2024 while in Guatemala, Carter had a stroke that started with incredible pain in his head. “The pain was so bad I begged them to let me die — but they didn’t,” he said.
Carter was flown to London and spent a year recovering. During that time he suffered three additional strokes and a massive blood clot to the brain. He was discharged in March 2024. He remained an outpatient until January when he decided he wanted his life to be more than constant doctor appointments. He chose to get back to Acid Rain — which remained docked in Guatemela
“I decided I wanted to live my life — even if it was a shorter, interesting one, rather than a longer one filled with appointments,” Carter said.
Carter picked up two new crew members — Anastashia and her cat, Simba, from Russia and Ibai from Spain. The three set sail on March 8. As they headed toward Havana, Cuba, on their way to Carricou the trio experienced turbulent waters and lost part of the boat’s rudder. Acid Rain then began taking on water where the rudder broke off.
After making a Mayday call, a container ship headed to Houston saved them. Carter said he thought he would never see Acid Rain again.
A few weeks after the accident, Carter received a call from the Coast Guard that Acid Rain had been spotted by a ship about 150 miles south of Houston. Six weeks after the accident, he received a Facebook message from the Cameron Parish Sheriff’s Office saying Acid Rain washed ashore off Johnson Bayou.
It didn’t take long before Carter and his brother booked a flight from London to Lake Charles. From there, they rented a car and drove to Johnson Bayou to see his beloved Acid Rain.
“When I got there I fell on my knees and was in tears, I had spent the last couple of weeks thinking I’d never see her again and there she was all bashed up and broken into and in pain now on the beach,” Carter said sadly.
The first night a Good Samaritan spotted Carter and brought him food. He was sleeping in the rental car when a man knocked on his car and asked if he’d like to come and stay with him for the night, which he did.
The next day Carter went back to Acid Rain to start cleaning up and that’s when he met Cynthia LeBlanc, a Johnson Bayou resident. LeBlanc was walking the beach looking for shark teeth. She brought him home and let him use her home Internet. While there, LeBlanc received a call from family friends Bill and Lila Terry and Gail Gutierrez, Bill’s sister, who were passing through Johnson Bayou on their way home from Texas. LeBlanc asked Terry if he knew of anyone who would be capable of helping Carter and when Terry offered for Carter to come and stay with his family. He’s been there ever since.
“Alex Carter has become a part of our community and our family and has already touched many lives and he is a wonderful young man with a soft heart for humankind,” the Terrys said.
The Terrys have been helping Carter by letting him stay at their home and setting him up a checking account for donations to help him fix Acid Rain and sail home.
“I feel like she was trying to get back to me,” Carter expressed emotionally. “I’ll 100 percent go out on the water by myself again, it’s a very special feeling being alone on the sea, it’s worth it,” Carter said.
Anyone wanting to donate to Carter and Acid Rain, can email saveacidrain@gmail.com.
