Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA - Sutton resident Nancy Dryden is recovering in a private Guatemalan hospital today after she and her husband were attacked aboard their sailboat in Lake Izabal in Guatemala on Saturday.

Her husband, Dan Dryden, 66, was killed in the attack by four machete-wielding men who boarded their boat and demanded money.

Their daughter and son, Jessica Winnestaffer and Daniel Dryden, are en route to Guatemala to be with Nancy during her recovery. According to information posted on a Web site the family set up after the attack, Nancy is suffering from a punctured lung. Doctors are working to drain fluid from her lung.

Family friend Lynne Woods said by cell phone today that Nancy was expected to stay in the Guatemalan hospital at least a few more days and is taking a course of antibiotics.

The attack and murder ended a six-month idyll in the sun.

The couple had recently retired. Dan worked as a truck driver during construction of the trans-Alaska pipeline and later as a private contractor doing dirt work. Nancy retired from the state, where she worked as a physical therapist. The couple have been very involved in the Sutton community since they moved there in the 1970s.

Woods said the Drydens were living on the sailboat, which they had recently purchased on the spur of the moment while visiting another Alaska couple who own a hotel in Guatemala. The couple planned to build a retirement home in Mexico but bought the boat instead. Accomplished sailors, they spent much of the period between 1976 and 1982 living aboard another boat, named Janetta, and traveling in the Caribbean and up the East Coast.

After buying the 42-foot Southern Cross 39 fiberglass monohull cruiser in February, Woods said, the Drydens spent a lot of time making repairs and updating it.

"The day of the attack, they had just taken the boat out to try the sail," Woods said. "It was a wonderful day for them."

According to information posted on the family Web site, the couple had docked in the harbor, away from the marina, and were preparing dinner when they heard a knock outside the cockpit. Dan answered the door to find four men with machetes.

Nancy and Dan "were prodded in the chest with the machetes as the assailants demanded U.S. dollars and the access to either the sailboat or the dinghy," according to the family's online account. "Nancy was held in a separate compartment as Dan grabbed his own machete and fought to his death."

The four men left the boat, and Nancy radioed for help. She was taken to the hospital with chest wounds and the punctured lung.

Renee Howard, girlfriend of Daniel Dryden III, said the family set up the Web site in Dan's memory. Information about Nancy's recovery will also be posted there. Find it at www.danieldryden.blogspot.com.

Find Daily News reporter Rindi White online at www.adn.com/contact/rwhite or call 352-6709.

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