Pretoria: 15 March 2024
Prompt action by the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) Centre for Sea Watch & Response to a vessel distress call thousands of kilometres into the Atlantic Ocean this week has successfully led to the rescue of two seafarers, now on their way to Cape Town, the agency reported on Friday.
Sadly, a third seafarer believed to be an elderly German national, could not be saved as he was reported to have sunk along with the vessel, said SAMSA. The two other seafarers, a Brazilian and a Swiss/USA citizen, are now currently on their way to Cape Town.
According to the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) based at the Centre for Sea Watch & Rescue in Cape Town Friday, the drama filled rescue operation of the seafarers ensued on Wednesday after the unit was called upon and notified shortly after 12 midnight by the Garmin International Rescue Coordination Centre (IERCC) of an SOS Alert that had been received.
“The IERCC relayed that the Swiss flagged sailing vessel NINA POPE was reported to be taking on water in a position approximately 2,400km West-south-west from Cape Town. Shortly after the report from the IERCC, a Cospas-Sarsat Emergency Position Radio Beacon (EPIRB) activation was received through the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS).
“The EPIRB was confirmed to be associated with the NINA POPE, which was en-route from Tristan da Cunha towards Cape Town as learned later.
“Due to the incident position being close to the Search and Rescue Region border of Uruguay and South Africa, it was agreed that MRCC Cape Town shall assume Search and Rescue (SAR) coordination. MRCC Uruguay continued to assist MRCC Cape Town with supplementary SAR related information.
“Telkom Maritime Radio was requested by MRCC Cape Town to communicate the distress of the three (3) persons onboard the NINA POPE to vessel around the incident location through a MAYDAY Relay.
“MRCC Cape Town had also identified several vessels that might be appropriate responding craft using SAMSA’s Automatic Identification System (AIS). The Motor Tanker vessel FRONT POLLUX, one of the vessels identified on AIS, responded to the MAYDAY Relay and diverted to investigate the distress notification on the request of MRCC Cape Town.
“Thanks to the continuous position updates received from both the Garmin device and the EPIRB, MRCC Cape Town was able to direct the FRONT POLLUX to the distress position through the communication assistance of Telkom Maritime Radio.
“By 3pm, the FRONT POLLUX reported to have sighted a life raft in the vicinity of the distress position and proceeded to recover the survivors in winds of up to 74 km/h and Sea swell of up to 08m.
“The FRONT POLLUX notified MRCC Cape Town that only two survivors (Male) were recovered from the life raft and that the third, the Skipper (Male), had not survived and went under with the NINA POPE when it sank,” said MRCC.
MRCC reported that it subsequently cancelled the MAYDAY Relay and the FRONT POLLUX relayed that the survivors did not require medical assistance.
“One survivor had dual Swiss/USA citizenship and the other is Brazilian, both had communicated with their respective Embassies in Cape Town as facilitated by the FRONT POLLUX. The deceased was a German citizen.
“The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) has been requested to assist with the landing of the survivors off Cape Town early next week,” said the MRCC
End.
The deceased skipper came from Switzerland