With the aid of VesselTracker's AIS, two vessels involved in assisting a dismasted yacht can be seen tracked.
St Mary's lifebaot, The Whiteheads was called out and launched at 4.14pm to go to the aid of a yacht 26 miles southwest of the Islands. Dismasted in strong northeasterly winds, the single-handed yacht, Betelgeuse is waiting assistance. The 200m car carrier Aquamarine Ace had altered course in response to the Mayday call earlier.
MCA update:
Meanwhile, Falmouth Coastguard had requested St Mary’s RNLI lifeboat to launch. The lifeboat was an hour away in rough weather with a five metre swell. Once the lifeboat arrived on scene, the sailor was rescued from his yacht and taken back to St Mary’s in the Isles of Scilly. The yacht had to be abandoned due to the rough weather.
Terry Collins, Falmouth Coastguard Watch Manager says:“In an emergency situation, using VHF DSC makes a massive difference to how quickly we might be able to get rescue resources to vessels in distress. A VHF DSC alert gives us an instant position allowing coastguards to deploy lifeboats, helicopters or other units almost immediately. In this particular case, DSC was even more helpful because voice communications were difficult due to the vessel being dismasted.”
#rnli #rescue #islesofscilly