Triple Star adrift a few hundred miles off Bermuda
Definitely not being 'sailed' at this stage....
Bouncing in the swell....
Stopping the ship and takin g a closer look at the vessel adrift...
Wednesday morning on the open Atlantic, 09:00 hours, Captain
Halle Gunderson announces over the loudspeakers that we spotted a sailboat
adrift out there in the limitless expanse of a peaceful blue shiny ocean.
Prinsendam stops, we approach at dead slow, we rircle the little boat....
Triple Star, from San Francisco, it says on the stern. Looks like an Island Packet yacht, 46 feet maybe. The boat floated, intact, all in one piece,
but the dishevelled state of the deck showed, that no one had walked those
planks since a while. Storm sail hanging over the side, lines dragging in
the water, bimini in shreds, companion way shut but deck hatch open, dinghy
obviousdly torn from distorted davits, outboard motor barely hanging on to
stern rail, jib boom slamming to the movement of the waves, mainsail obviously
stored away - bare pole, jib furled, jerry cans laying askew on deck, sternladder
ripped half off, and anchor and Life Slings stowed......but otherwise, in
perfect condition.
We circled a while, almost touching distance, blew the
ship's whistle (it does wake the dead) but no response. Captain Gunderson
had contacted the Bermuda Coast Guard via radio, and announced, that they
were aware of Triple Star drifting around.
The story goes: Triple Star left Newport November 2011 with an American couple aboard, and ran into gale force winds in the Atlantic. A rogue wave of an estimated 38 feet height swamped
the boat and washed the woman overboard.and she was never seen again, despite
an extensive airsearch by a US Coast Guard Hercules rescue plane. The husband
crew was taken of his vessel by a freighter who sailed to the stricken vessel.
The boat has been drifting ever since.
Now, that the boat has been sighted and located, it may be towed to land.... Comlying with international distress at sea routine, Prinsendam approached the drifting boat, always concious
of potential 'pirate machinations' contacted her via VHF radio, and watched
her first without sending a tender over.
If all clear, then crew of Prinsendam would have inspected the drifting boat for any survivors or victims and reported it to the local authorities.
So, nothing else to do but let her drift on on her sad lonely journey across the waves until someone picks her up and tows her....somewhere.
