On 14 March, the sailing yacht "Nina Pope" sank around 2,400 kilometres west of Cape Town. The Swiss skipper Benno F. (Name known to the editors) managed at the last second to bring his two paying co-sailors, Marcelo O., 38, from Brazil and the American-Swiss Balthasar W., 52, to safety, while he himself remained behind in the sinking ship and died.
The crew had previously tried to keep the damaged yacht afloat in winds of over 50 knots and waves almost eight metres high. As the situation became increasingly threatening, the skipper and father of two made an emergency call shortly after midnight and decided to abandon the "Nina Pope", which was sailing under the Swiss flag. He helped his fellow sailors to board the life raft and also gave them a small GPS distress transmitter. Before he could bring himself to safety, the ship suddenly sank faster and took him with it - presumably still connected to the ship by a lifeline.
Flotsam was the "Nina Pope's" undoing
The exact cause of the yacht's sinking is still being investigated. However, it is suspected that the approximately 16 metre long Grand Soleil 54 collided with a drifting container during the three-week crossing from Rio de Janeiro to Cape Town. This is said to have caused a hole below the waterline. The skipper had been aware of the difficult weather situation during the stopover on the Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha, but the harbour was too small and the situation at anchor was even more dangerous. Less than 48 hours after setting off, the "Nina Pope" and its skipper Benno F. were lost at sea.
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The two surviving crew members, who wanted to take a break from business life, were adrift in the raging South Atlantic after the sinking in the life raft. Fortunately, the SOS call reached the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA), which forwarded their distress call to the nearby tanker "Front Pollux". The crew of the crude oil tanker launched a risky rescue operation and eventually found the two survivors in their small life raft with the help of the signals from Epirb and the Garmin distress beacon.
Paying crew members rescued from tanker
The relieved men were provided with warm clothing and hot drinks on board the cargo ship and medically examined. Apart from exhaustion and shock, both were uninjured. The tanker arrived in Cape Town on 19 March.
It is not only the two rescued sailors who are deeply saddened by the loss of the owner. Family and friends in particular are in deep mourning. F. is said to have been an experienced skipper who had been sailing for over 50 years and went sailing around the world when he retired. His sailing career began by chance on Lake Sempach on a Vaurien, and he later sailed 505s in regattas and surfed together with his brother. The dream of owning his own ocean-going yacht first emerged at the age of 27 and came true in 2014. He lost his first boat in a fire in the harbour of Aguadulce and replaced it with the "Nina Pope", built in 2009 and now sunk, with which he was sailing around the world.
