As of: March 29, 2024, 4:36 p.m
By: Julian Mayr
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A Swiss sailor brings his two-man crew to safety in a violent storm on the Atlantic before sinking with his yacht.
Cape Town - At the beginning of 2012, a cruise ship ran aground off the Italian coast. More than 30 people died. The ship's captain was to gain inglorious notoriety. Francesco Schettino left the ship while the evacuation was still in progress. It is a violation of good maritime custom that the skipper is the last to disembark. The Swiss Benno F. (72) also took this to heart. However, he never left his ship.
A sailing trip that lasted several weeks through the Atlantic was fatal for a Swiss man (72). (Symbolic image) © jjvanginkel/IMAGO
In the South Atlantic on the way to Cape Town: Sailors get caught in a storm on the high seas with their yacht
In February 2023, three men set sail from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In addition to Benno F., the captain of the approximately 16 meter long sailing yacht “Nina Pope”, a 52-year-old Swiss and a 38-year-old Brazilian were also part of the crew. Their destination was Cape Town in South Africa, a sailing trip lasting several weeks across the Atlantic Ocean.
According to the British newspaper
Daily Mail,
the ship was caught in a violent storm in the South Atlantic after just over two weeks at sea. With wind speeds of over 90 kilometers per hour and meter-high waves, the three crew members fought desperately to keep the yacht afloat.
Sailing yacht probably damaged by collision with container – captain suspects the seriousness of the situation
Journalist Jamie Pyatt reports in the
Daily Mail
that the modern ship should have survived the storm. It is believed that the yacht struck a cargo container floating in the sea and suffered significant damage. Shortly after midnight, Benno F., the father of two, probably recognized the hopeless situation and made an emergency call.
The skipper, as the master of a sailing yacht is called, probably knew that the ship would have sunk before help arrived. He lowered the inflatable life raft into the stormy water and ordered the two crew members to release their safety lines. He also gave them a small satellite transmitter for later tracking.
Tanker locates crew in life raft thousands of kilometers from South Africa's coast
However, before Benno could untie his safety line and join them, the yacht suddenly sank, dragging him into the depths of the Atlantic. The two men, however, were safe for the time being. However, they were trapped in the life raft and at the mercy of the stormy ocean. According to Pyatt, the crew's distress call with their position data reached the South African Maritime Safety Authority (MSASA) in Cape Town, more than 2,000 kilometers away.
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Three men set sail on a Grand Soleil sailing yacht. Only two survived the turbulent journey. (Symbolic image) © bluegreen pictures/imago
Luckily, MSASA passed the call for help to the much closer giant tanker Front Pollux, which was also en route to South Africa, the
Daily Mail
reports. Thanks to the transmitter, which cost around 400 euros and that Benno F. had given them at the last minute, the ship was able to locate the raft floating in the open sea.
Crew in shock but safe in the middle of the Atlantic
That same day, the ship reported that two people were rescued from the life raft, but the captain was missing. In 2023, a shipwrecked man on the open sea could only be found after two weeks. The rescued crew were shocked but unharmed as they were brought aboard the tanker.
However, there are also examples of ship captains who behave less heroically, such as a skipper in the Red Sea who left his passengers behind. The fate of a pair of sailors missing in the Caribbean is still unclear.
The editor wrote this article and then used an AI language model for optimization at his own discretion. All information has been carefully checked.
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