Rescued!

6 February 2016

The ship in trouble was the Belgian yacht ‘Tarabaralla’. The ship was demasted and the propellor was not working anymore and the (Italian) solo sailor had sent out an emergency signal. The MRCC was in contact with him via satellite phone. During the night the situation deteriorated quickly. The yacht was taking on water and when the MRCC lost contact, the situation became critical as the message from the MRCC to the ‘Oosterschelde’ describes:

MRCC ROMA has just phoned us, the vessel ‘TARABALLA’ report that the
situation become very dangerous.
Would please proceed in maximum speed and try to contact the vessel on
sat phone.

At 02:45 UTC the ‘Oosterschelde’ was on site and luckily we were able to get the solo sailor unharmed on board the ‘Oosterschelde’ around 04:10 UTC. The sinking ship was left behind and the ‘Oosterschelde’ proceeded her voyage toward Martinique with one extra guest on board.