In deep darkness with 20 knots of wind and waves on the notorious Nordergründe, a single-handed sailor experiences the nightmare of his life on Thursday night (1 September 2022): water ingress. A giant container ship approaches in the busy Weser fairway. Danger of collision!
At 11:20 p.m., the skipper's distress call reaches the rescue coordination centre. He was drifting helplessly and unable to manoeuvre in the area between the Jade and Weser rivers in the North Sea. After an unsuccessful attempt to anchor his ten-metre boat in the shallow water off the uninhabited island of Mellum, his only hope is for rapid towing assistance. The rescue cruisers from Bremerhaven and Hooksiel set off immediately. Time is of the essence: A giant container ship is approaching in the fairway.
Söhnke Thaden and his Fishing trawler "Christine only a good three miles away from the distressed vessel. The sea rescuers at the control centre see this on the AIS and ask for help. "There was no question for us as to whether we would help. We raised the nets and travelled to the distressed vessel," explains the cutter captain from Fedderwardersiel.
"Without the fishermen, the mission would have turned out differently!"
The sailing yacht's electrical system has now failed due to the water ingress. Unlit and without a radio, she can only be located by taking a radar bearing. Only when the cutter is close by can the light of a torch be recognised, with which the skipper draws attention to himself. Meanwhile, the wind and tide push his boat further and further into the fairway. The 400-metre-long container ship "Magleby Maersk" is approaching, unable to avoid or stop; it is too shallow next to the fairway and the braking distance would be too long.
What it means to stop a container giant or to change course by just a few degrees, reported Captain Jan Rüsch in a recent interview with Yacht: "You can't just slow down a 336 metre ship weighing 130,000 tonnes. It takes three minutes just to lower the engine. The rudder blade of a full container ship is bigger than a detached house." Even the pilot of the "Magleby Maersk" can only change course by a few degrees, which cannot prevent an accident.
"We received a clear message from Bremen Rescue: We had 15 minutes to establish a towing connection and pull the boat out of the fairway. Otherwise we would have had to tow the man away and abandon the boat," says Söhnke Thaden, describing the situation. When the fishing cutter arrives, the boat makes a good impression and is not too deep in the water. The single-handed sailor is responsive, albeit agitated. "The situation was much more dramatic for him than it was for us. We were never in any danger," explains Thaden.
He carefully backs the cutter up to the damaged vessel, establishes a line connection and slowly tows the boat to the edge of the shipping lane. Just in time: at the same moment, the container ship pushes past like a huge wall. "It was a strange situation: the deep-sea vessel whizzes past, a rescue helicopter circles above us and the sea rescuers approach from both sides," says Thaden, describing the moment of the lucky rescue.
The sea rescuers take over the sailing boat, attach a bilge pump and tow it to Hooksiel. The sea is still so rough that the fenders between the yacht and the lifeboat burst. At around 5.30 a.m., the tow arrives in Hooksiel, a good ten miles away, and in the morning the sailing boat is towed into the harbour. the shipyard there brought in. According to the shipyard, the underwater hull shows no signs of damage; the cause of the water ingress is still unclear.
The sea rescuers summarise in their report: "Without the fishermen, the mission would have turned out differently!" "But we don't want to make a big wave about it, for us it's a matter of course," says fisherman Söhnke Thaden. It happens from time to time that he has to help pleasure boaters with his cutter in the not-so-easy tidal area.
"The Nordergründe in particular are an extremely difficult area that is best avoided at night. There is always a huge dune on the sandbank," Söhnke Thaden knows from long experience. Sailors are always in danger there. Most recently, the sea rescuers had to save a young couple from the dangerous surf.
