Volunteers at the Hyères National Sea Rescue Society (SNSM) station will long remember this rescue carried out in degraded sea conditions on Wednesday, May 1st.
After eight grueling hours at sea, the eight sea rescuers were able to shelter a skipper and his dog as well as his sailboat by bringing them back to the port of the island of Port Cros in the early evening. They had been hired at 2:50 p.m., by Cross Med, to rescue the septuagenarian and his sailboat who found themselves in difficulty offshore 28 nautical miles (52km) from the coast.
After two hours of difficult navigation, with seas created by a strong easterly wind, the sailboat was located and approached. According to the volunteers, “this solitary navigator, aged 72, does not respond to calls from the rescuers, he is exhausted and no longer has the strength to steer his ship which has a steering problem.”
Eight grueling hours at sea
In very difficult conditions with depths of two meters, the semi-rigid is then launched in the water in order to hoist the navigator and his dog on board the sailboat to take care of the person and carry out the towing maneuvers.
The return will take place in increasingly deteriorating weather conditions. At 8 p.m., the crew of the all-weather dinghy CTT 078 will make the decision to reach the port of Port Cros to shelter the sailboat and the skipper in safety.
After 8 grueling hours at sea, the volunteers will reach the Saint-Pierre port around 11 p.m. An intervention that the eight sea rescuers will remember for a long time with two lives saved, the navigator and his dog.
