MAYDAY POSITION
21° 43'N
26° 57'W
Information from the ARC Press Release: The MAYDAY was called by the crew of Compromise, a Nicholson 32, at 19:50UTC on 03 December, at position 21°43'N, 26°57'W,
The Medical Emergency was actually initiated on December the 3rd @ approximately 09:00 UTC in response to a medical emergency on board the yacht. I had suffered a mental breakdown. I was not officially relieved of my command by the crew, but it was clear that I had lost it and required external assistance. Sophie, in her capacity as ship's Dr. took the decision to make the call for help. The initial call was to Thames Valley Coast Guard who relayed the call through MRCC Falmouth.
ABANDONED
21° 03'N
27° 28'W
Notes: This is the last reported position I have for the yacht. It comes from an ARC communiqué. Compromise was abandoned with all crew at approximately 19:00 hours. The transfer was at dusk. We were instructed to use our liferaft. There was approximately 2.0 metres of swell. I led first into the liferaft fallowed by the first mate and then the crew, who handled the luggage. 6 small pieces of luggage were transferred to the 6 man liferaft in addition to the 3 persons on board. We were set adrift and transfer between yachts. On the other side the same order was used for disembarking the liferaft, skipper first, but we did not need to clip on once on the ladder side of the Mirabella V. We had clipped on to the liferaft on the Compromise side once I was onboard. The flexibility of the liferaft cushioned the yachts from the heavy swell. Communication for the Mayday was co-ordinated by Dr. Sophie Quinney, MCCR Falmouth and Mirabella via satellite phone and finally VHF.
Compromise was set adrift, laying a hull with her washboards secured, her tri colour switched on and her sails furled. Unfortunately, we did not have time to rig up the solar panel before darkness set in. The rescue took approximately 24 hours to complete from the initial Mayday call. A 406 MHz EPERB was activated on Wednesday the 3rd at 21:50. No ARC boat was in our vicinity. The Mirabella V was 160 miles upwind and offered to come to our assistance. The initial ETA to our rescue was 10 hours but we did not rendez vous till the next day, approximately 21 hours later. Also we did not come up on Mirabella’s radar until we were within a distance of 7 nautical miles.The Satellite phone was instrumental in helping the Mirabella V come to our assistance and co-ordinating the rescue through MRCC Falmouth.
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