The water ingress on the catamaran was so severe that the 60-year-old's only option was to flee to the life raft. Using a satellite phone, the Frenchman managed to make a distress call and report his approximate position: around 160 nautical miles off the Seychelles island of Mahé.
The French sea rescuers (CROSS) from La Réunion then diverted a French Air Force aircraft, which was able to locate the life raft and circled the area until it was relieved by a military aircraft from the Seychelles.
During the course of the rescue operation, a liveaboard was directed to the casualty. After a total of eight hours, the exhausted and, by his own admission, "very thirsty" man was finally rescued and brought to the island of Desroches. The sailor had not been able to get any provisions or drinking water onto his life raft.
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After a thorough examination by a doctor, the rescued man was flown to Mahé, from where his return to France is being organised.
Morten Strauch
Editor News & Panorama
Morten Strauch was born in Schleswig in 1977, but grew up mainly in Lüneburg. He joined the Boy Scouts so that he could take part in a youth sailing camp in the Stockholm archipelago. After an internship at BOOTE magazine, he dropped out of his communications design studies, followed by 13 years as a freelance photographer and author for BOOTE, BOOTE Exclusiv and YACHT. In 2019, he was hired by Hanseyachts to serve as press spokesman and marketing manager. Consequently, the long-awaited first boat becomes a Hanse 291. Three and a half years later, he returns to Delius Klasing, this time as an editor for YACHT in the Panorama department. When not (also) privately on the water, Morten can be found scuba diving or collecting fossils on the coast.
