“A rescue on the edge of the impossible.” This is how the Spanish coastguard describe the operation to recover alive the French navigator Laurent Camprubi, 62, who survived 16 hours under his overturned sailboat off the coast of Galicia (northwest) thanks to an air bubble.
(Also read: Rugby star dies of a heart attack while beating his girlfriend)
The emergency call from the French sailboat “Jeanne Solo Sailor” was received on Monday night at 8:30 p.m., after which the Maritime Rescue coastguard located the capsized boat, 14 miles from the Sisargas Islands, according to information provided this Thursday by that entity.
A rescuer, Guillermo Lavía, descended from a helicopter to the hull, hit him and received “return blows” that made him “almost certain that there was a person trapped below,” said the member of Maritime Rescue.
The sea conditions at that time made the rescue impossible, so the coastguard worked “for a few frantic hours” to secure the ship and ensure that it did not sink, said Rodrigo Piñeiro, skipper of one of the Salvamento Marítimo ships.
(Also: They rescue a woman kidnapped for 17 years: place was dirty and said ‘Jesus loves you’)
Already on Tuesday morning, a team of divers arrived at the sailboat.
With flashlights, and in the middle of a very choppy sea, the divers entered the sailboat, where they saw a boot of a wetsuit, and when they touched it, “the foot was instantly withdrawn”, they said. They had found it.
“Each life saved is our greatest reward”
This was the rescue carried out yesterday by Maritime Rescue to the crew member of the French sailboat JEANNE SOLO SAILOR that was keeled in the sun 14 miles NNW from the Sisargas Islands. pic.twitter.com/gqobWTSoWc
— MARITIME RESCUE (@salvamentogob) August 3, 2022
“We put a boat hook (a long pole used on boats) towards the area, the man grabbed it and at once a face with open eyes appeared. float,” the divers continued.
(Read more: Washing machines, sofas and bicycles like new: the ‘garbage’ that is thrown away in the US)
Laurent Camprubi was finally rescued “on August 2 at 12:00,” Salvamento Marítimo said. He had survived 16 hours “with barely a foot of air.” He was evacuated, unharmed, by helicopter.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you. From inside the ship I heard the Maritime Rescue helicopter fly overhead. I knew it was here and that they were going to rescue me, that they were not going to leave me alone. It was a matter of time. I had to survive for myself and my family,” said Laurent Camprubi, quoted in the statement.
AFP
More news
Thief who threatened with a fork was shot dead by a police officer in Argentina
The mysterious death of two sisters that intrigues the Australian authorities
‘Nachito’, the dog that died defending his family from a snake
#Spain #man #survived #hours #overturned #sailboat