A few days ago, we received report that a Bavaria 44, traveling independently from the ARC from the Canaries to the Caribbean, lost a man over board – only 400 nm from their destination. There were 2 people on board, a husband and wife. At the time of the incident, they were trying to recover their gennacker, which had fallen in the water, and the husband fell over board. The wife was after some delay able to raise a distress call and was subsequently rescued by a commercial vessel, but sadly the husband is still missing at sea.
Last night, we were given the coordinates for the search area, which we would pass through during the night. Therefore, we changed our watch schedule to rotate every two hours to ensure that all were alert to look for the MOB. On board North Star, the captain and crew talked through the plan of action in the event that either the MOB or the abandoned vessel were spotted. This morning we completed our track through the search area and we did spot and reported to the MCC, a piece of the spinnaker cloth in the water.
This is a tragic event, and we sincerely hope that the husband will be found. Our thoughts are with his wife, family and friends.
Position of North Star 14.18 N and 56.09 W, sog is 5.7 and cog is 278 deg.
/North Star