Twists and Turns

Today started out promising. On our way to Marco’s Bistro for breakfast, we stopped by the navigational charts to see what might be in store for us wave-wise, and were encouraged to see that the area of red had slipped away to the right of us, and our route showed purple all the way.

Despite the heavy swell, this meant that the sea was less rough than it had been yesterday. So much so that we didn’t have to tape down the mixing palettes in the painting class, or sit the water containers on damp tissue. So far so good.

Towards the end of the first session, however, Jonathon the Cruise Director announced that due to a distress signal having been received from a yacht, we would be changing course to help in the search. According to Maritime Law, all vessels within the vicinity are required to answer the call and help out in whatever way they can.

By the time I’d completed my second session and we’d gone to lunch, we, along with at least two other large ships that were visible, were in the area, looking for the source of the distress call. For several hours, we sailed, with loads of people up on deck with their binoculars in the hope of spotting something; it wasn’t looking good…

We didn’t see it ourselves because we’d retired to the cabin, but it turned out that the search was not in vain. At around 2pm, the yacht, a large, 14-man ‘SailScotland’ yacht was spotted, and both the Marco Polo and a tanker moved in to offer aid. At 2:20pm, it was announced that we had been relieved of our search and rescue duty by order of the British Coastguard, and that we would be returning to our original course. Shortly afterwards, the Captain confirmed that the Royal Navy ship ‘Dragon’, which passed us on our starboard side, would be attempting the rescue.

The rescue attempt made the Sky News; it seems the yacht was on its way back to Scotland from the Azores when what was described as a freak wave broke its mast at deck level, and the rudder was also damaged. The whole crew of 14 were rescued and the yacht was deemed too badly damaged to salvage.

The full story can be read here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/11/fourteen-rescued-royal-navy-warship-racing-yacht-becomes-stranded/