Distress at sea, an accident and a spectacular rescue: Sailing boat is freed weeks after stranding - and is afloat again!

For Portuguese sailor Pinto Morais, reality and miracles have probably not always been clearly distinguishable in recent weeks. On the night of 2 April 2025, his 10-metre-long sailing boat "Sasuka" ran aground on the beach at Quinéville in Normandy. He had just bought the boat in the Netherlands and wanted to bring it home with two fellow sailors. However, technical problems and unfavourable weather conditions thwarted this plan and led to two dramatic rescue operations.

Dramatic night at sea

On the evening of 1 April at around 7 p.m., the three Portuguese sailors on board the "Sasuka" got into distress and had to make a distress call. They had set sail from Le Havre in the morning, heading west towards the tidal harbour of Quinéville on the opposite side of the bay on the north-western English Channel. But about half a mile off the coast, the leg came to an abrupt end: the boat registered in Duisburg ran aground on a sandbank. In a lee shore situation with wind forces of over 6 Beaufort from the east and wave heights of more than 3 metres, there was no chance of getting free under their own steam.

The sea rescuers from the Sauveteurs en Mer (SNSM) station Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue, about four miles away, rushed to the rescue with a RIB, while at the same time a naval helicopter took off from Maupertus. Fabrice Leblond, the head of the SNSM station, describes in the magazine "Ouest France" described the dramatic operation: "While the diver from the helicopter jumped into the water to bring the sailors to safety, three of our divers swam to the sailing boat." The three sailors, all aged over 60, were eventually brought to the beach on foot. There they were received by the fire brigade almost unharmed, with only one showing signs of slight hypothermia.

The boat is abandoned. For the time being.

The sailboat's anchor was set, but could not withstand the wind, which continued to freshen during the night. "Sasuka" ran aground on the coast at a very unfavourable time. The tidal coefficient and thus the water level at high tide decreased, as did the wind, which was blowing strongly from the east and had additionally increased the water level at the time of the accident. Salvage from the sea was considered impossible in the long term. The SNSM estimated that the boat would not have enough water under its keel again until the next big tide at the end of April at the earliest.

Complex salvage work

As the regional daily newspaper La Presse de la Manche reports, the morning after the accident, a walker met the owner of the boat lying on its side - and spontaneously decided to help. He rounded up a group of friends and obtained authorisation for extensive dredging work. A dredger was provided by a company in the nearby town of Valognes that actually specialises in material recovery. Their boss not only knows his way around heavy equipment, but as an experienced sailor he also had the necessary expertise for salvage.

At five o'clock in the morning on 26 April, the men began to dig the shipwrecked vessel free at low tide and turn her out to sea. However, the tidal range was not sufficient to float the boat at high tide. So they finally dug a 40 metre long trench at the following low tide. The effort proved successful: the Sasuka finally floated up during the evening tide. That same evening, she was able to moor safely in the harbour of Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue.

Happy end to an odyssey

The owner of the "Sasuka" is very lucky a second time after his own rescue. His boat escaped almost unscathed, only the keel suffered from the sand abrasion and needs to be repainted. He plans to pick up the boat in Normandy in mid-June and transfer it to its future home port of Porto. With Brittany and the Bay of Biscay, there is potential for further adventures on his route. He has already invited his rescuers to visit him in Portugal.