Sailors saved from certain death
A life raft with two sailors whose catamaran had capsized hours earlier, was spotted in rough seas off East London.
|||Durban - In fading light, in an area already searched, a life raft with two sailors clinging on was spotted in rough seas by the crew of a bulk carrier, who pulled them aboard on Sunday night, saving them from certain death.
The men had been drifting in the raft for five hours after their catamaran capsized off East London. The catamaran had left Durban on Friday en route to Cape Town.
National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) spokesman, Craig Lambinon, said the bulk carrier CMA CGM Rossini found the crew 51 nautical miles off Kidd’s Beach, in a search-and-rescue operation co-ordinated by the Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre.
An Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon activation was received by the centre and ships in the area were diverted to the co-ordinates to investigate.
“Both men, Jean Sitruk, 65, from Lyon, France, and Kyle Castelyn, 30, from Strand, Cape Town, have requested to stay on the Rossini bound for Cape Town. They are due to arrive in Cape Town on Tuesday,” Lambinon said.
“The first ship found the upturned hull adrift. A life raft was also found adrift in the vicinity, but there was no sign of the crew. The bulk carrier was tasked to go back to the last known position of the beacon and to search between there and where the catamaran was physically located,” Lambinon said.
“Although the area had been searched earlier, it was decided in the fading light to make best use of the last light to re-cover all ground. It was in this leg of the search effort that a life raft was located with both men,” he added.
The Rossini came alongside the life raft after reporting that the two men were rowing towards them. They took the men on board until the sea rescue craft got there.
“Both men are reported to be in good spirits and understandably all of the people involved in the search are overjoyed. The families of the two men have been informed of the good news,” Lambinon said.
It remains unknown what caused the yacht to capsize. On his Facebook page last week, Castelyn, a scuba diver trainer, wrote that he arrived back in South Africa from Madagascar at the beginning of the month.
He wrote he was waiting for good weather and then he would sail down to Port Elizabeth, Mossel Bay and Cape Town.
Sitruk has been sailing abroad for the past eight years.
zainul.dawood@inl.co.za
Daily News
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