Pretoria: 19 March 2024
Two seafarers evacuated from a life raft at sea on Thursday this past week after their small vessel sank in the Atlantic Ocean some 2400km west of Cape Town reportedly during the early hours of that morning, safely arrived in the Mother City on Monday, according to the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA).
SAMSA said the pair, reportedly a Swiss/USA and Brazilian citizens, both in relatively good health, were disembarked in Cape Town just after lunch on Monday, having arrived on board a crude oil tanker, the FRONT POLLUX; that pluck them off the sea last week.
Sadly, a third seafarer also onboard the Switzerland registered sailing vessel NINA POPE the group were sailing in, reportedly passed away and he went down along with the vessel when it reportedly sank in an ocean location in the Atlantic, approximately 2400km west of Cape Town on Thursday.
SAMSA, through the Maritime Rescue Coordinating Centre (MRCC) based at the SAMSA Centre for Sea Watch & Response in Cape Town, earlier reported that the group of seafarers’ problems with their craft – a vessel measuring about 16m in length and about five (5) meters wide – surfaced through the Garmin International Rescue Coordination Centre (IERCC) notification of an SOS Alert from one of the crew of the NINA POPE that had been received.
Shortly thereafter, a Distress notification from a Cospas-Sarsat Emergency Position Radio Beacon (EPIRB) activation was relayed by the South African Mission Coordination Centre (ASMCC) for Cospas-Sarsat, based at Telkom Maritime Radio Services in Milnerton, Cape Town.
“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.
“Thanks to the continuous position updates received from both the Garmin device and the EPIRB, MRCC Cape Town was able to direct the MT FRONT POLLUX to the distress position through the communication assistance of Telkom Maritime Radio.
By 3pm (South African local time on Thursday) the MT 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 eight (8) meters.
“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.
In Cape Town on Monday, the two seafarers were welcomed and taken care of by the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) which had been called upon to assist, said SAMSA.
“The two survivors were safely disembarked by the NSRI Table Bay unit from the M/T FRONT POLLUX and transported to back to the NSRI base. The seafarers are sorting out paperwork with the respective embassies,” said SAMSA.
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