Fascinating images of merchant bulker rescuing sailboat crew

Croatian sailors rescued a French family, their beloved dog, and a Portuguese skipper from a sailboat stranded in the Atlantic during a storm.

The rescue took place in the middle of the Atlantic last week, by the MV Sunda ship, commanded by Rijeka Captain, Ivan Versic.

MV Sunda was informed that a sailboat with four crew members and a small dog was stranded due to an engine malfunction, according to Total Croatia.

“We made contact through VHF radio and found out that everything was fine with the crew, only they were tired. We agreed to delay the rescue for the next morning due to inclement weather and nightfall. Shortly after that, we made the first visual contact with the boat, and we were nearby all night in case of an emergency,” explains Captain Versic.

The next morning, due to bad weather, the crew was forced to interrupt the rescue operation five times, but consistently looked for the most suitable course to get closer to the sailboat in the safest possible way. The waves were four meters high.

“We managed to stop close enough to the boat to give them a ‘Line Throwing App’ and slowly, around 15:05, they made it next to us. We managed to keep the boat there for ten minutes until the crew was moved to our ship,” says Versic.

The entire crew and a small French bulldog were rescued safely and without injury. The boat was abandoned, and the crew disembarked at the Brazilian port of Macapa on Thursday afternoon. The MV Sunda ship then continued its voyage to Santarem.

5 responses to “Fascinating images of merchant bulker rescuing sailboat crew”

  1. Duncan Wells says:

    And what is to become of this ‘abandoned’ yacht. Did they scuttle it? And what did the family need to leave the sailing yacht which appeared to have sails? Well done to the rescuers of course but I wonder at the calibre of the rescued crew.

    • Zella Compton says:

      These are all really valid questions Duncan. We’re trying to find out more. We suspect there is a lot more to come out in the fullness of time.

  2. Halam Rose says:

    There must be more to this. Why would a sailboat expect to use it’s engine in the middle of the Atlantic?