Just under 90 nautical miles off the coast of Dakar, the eleven-man crew of the "Outlaw" spotted a man during the Ocean Globe Race. The curious thing is that he was travelling alone in a 20-foot-long canoe. He had nothing to eat or drink on board and his fuel was very limited in two small canisters. According to the crew led by skipper Mackie Campbell, there were no apparent reasons why the man would be travelling alone so far out.
A pirate?
As the area is known for many pirate attacks, the crew of the 55-foot-long Baltic, which is sailing under the Australian flag, was correspondingly cautious. Although the man, who speaks neither English nor French, had reportedly survived for five days without food, he appeared healthy.
The crew of the "Outlaw" took him in tow in his canoe, but refused to take the man on board after consulting with the OGR race organisers. The situation seemed too strange to them. They also ruled out the possibility that the man had gone fishing, as he had neither fishing equipment nor a radio with him.
Brought home
The race organisers, informed of the incident, called out the code orange while the "Outlaw" and its experienced skipper Campbell set course for Dakar. The crew reported to the OGR race organisers led by Don McIntyre at agreed intervals. For safety reasons, their position was no longer displayed on the OGR tracker. Campbell's plan to bring the man in distress within range of the coast of Dakar so that he could reach the mainland with his last fuel reserves appears to have been successful. In the meantime, the position of the Baltic 55 is being communicated again via the Ocean Globe Race tracker.
On Thursday afternoon, Marie Tabarly, the daughter of legendary French sailor Éric Tabarly, is in the lead. She is the skipper of the ship he had to abandon the Whitbread Race with in 1973, the "Pen Duick VI".
