Star involved in storm rescue last week

[old nutter]

The Star was sailing in and around the Medicane Zorba around Greece last week. The winds were over 100 mph at times on Thursday and Friday around southern Greece. However the captain managed to get the ship into Piraeus along with lots of Greek ferries that were there because they could not get to the islands and all of the Star's excursions went ahead although there were lots of strong wind warnings on the roads and heavy rain to the north of Athens itself.

 

 

The Star left Piraeus and headed south to go round the southern edge of Greece on Thursday evening. The turn North towards the Adriatic during the night again put the ship into very strong winds and the Captain took a decision to run quickly to get North of the storm as quickly as possible as it grew even stronger to the South. As it got light on Friday morning the ship received a message that an unfortunate lone yachtsman was in serious trouble around 10 miles south of the Star and as the nearest ship it was asked to go to his assistance so the ship reversed course for about 30 minutes until the boat was spotted.

 

 

Once the boat had been located the captain put the Star to windward and acted as a wind break whilst the sailor tried to recover from a broken mainmast and a failed engine. The Star stayed with the boat for around 45 minutes with the rescue boat being prepared to rescue the sailor from his ailing boat whilst being sheltered from the storm winds. However, it was decided that a Greek Coastguard rescue boat heading to the position was better placed to take over the rescue attempt and the Star was released to return to head back to the North-west on her sea day towards Split. Extra speed during the sea day allowed the ship to catch up on the schedule and she docked on time on Saturday in a relatively calm Split.

 

 

The Coastguards apparently could not repair the yacht and the weather was too bad to tow the boat to shore so the yachtsman was taken aboard the Coastguard boat and safely returned to the Greek mainland minus his boat that was left adrift in the Ionian sea.The captain and crew of the Star displayed excellent seamanship throughout this very stormy passage and their actions may well have saved this unfortunate and very tired sailor by being able to find him quickly and hold to the wind to shield him from the worst of the storm using the Star as a very effective windbreak until he could be rescued. The captain kept us up to date with what was happening and gave a final update once he was able to get the word from the Greek Marine Rescue Centre. Well done all concerned.

[Turtles06]

Nice to have that kind of story with a happy ending (and property can be replaced). Thank you for sharing it with us. Great job by the Star and all involved.

[cml4958]

Thank you for sharing and glad the Star was able to help out.

[loveseaside]

I was on that cruise and wondered what happened to the abandoned sailboat.

Will an attempt be made to get it, tow it, salvage it, or does it just sink in the shipping lanes?

Is it justifiable to just leave it ? I would love some real followup.

Also, we had those heavy winds starting in Dubrovnik where acouple hundred of us waited for hours, in the rain, for buses to take us back to the ship. Those five promised buses never arrived, it seemed to be one bus going back and forth.

Upon arriving at port, a line of acouple hundred people were wind whipped as the gang plank would accept only two people at a time. My complaint at the tour desks were totally ignored. Many many people were soaked and cold.