Press
A Spanish hobby sailor gets into acute distress in a storm between Greece and Italy and disappears without a trace. A dramatic rescue operation followed.
Roccella Ionica – A sailing trip from Crete to Sicily almost ended in a nightmare for a Spanish amateur sailor. The tourist set off from the Greek holiday island on April 11th in his twelve-meter yacht in beautiful weather. But on the way, the man got caught in a storm off Italy and contact was lost, as the Italian coast guard has now announced.
Lost for eight days in the middle of the Mediterranean
After relatives reported missing him, they contacted the authorities in Greece. The rescue center in the port city of Piraeus near Athens received a satellite signal on Friday (April 19) indicating the possible presence of the yacht 110 miles east of the Italian cape Spartivento (about 200 km from the Calabrian coast) at the tip of the Italian boot pointed out. This set the rescue machinery in motion
Coordinated by the Maritime Directorate of Reggio Calabria, a plane took off from Catania in Sicily to the search area, as did a patrol boat that left Roccella Ionica in Calabria. Two merchant ships were also diverted to the sea area to assist in the search.
Spaniards in distress: man drifts through the storm, unable to maneuver
“The rescue operation was lengthy and complex, with terrible weather conditions, 70 km/h winds and increasingly stormy seas,” the newspaper writes La Stampa. The yacht was reached in the middle of the night by patrol boat CP311. The skipper drew attention to himself with flare gun bullets. The crew of the patrol boat took the unfortunate man on board.
His boat was in a sorry state, with one mast broken, the sails torn and unable to maneuver. The coast guard brought the rescued man to their port in Roccella Ionica, where he was handed over to the rescue service. The Coast Guard report does not say what happened to the sailboat.
A few days ago there was a shipwreck in Naples when a ferry rammed the quay wall. Just a few weeks ago, two ferries between the holiday island of Ischia and the port town of Pozzuoli began to lurch during a storm. One of the two ships ran aground as the water became shallower due to the swelling supervolcano of the Phlegraean Fields.
#Sailor #drifts #helplessly #raging #sea