Missing: SA Pleasure Cruise With Seven Passengers

Missing: SA Pleasure Cruise With Seven Passengers

16 Apr 2012 by Janey Bee in Travel, World

The search is on for a South African yacht which has gone missing somewhere in the Indian Ocean off northern Mozambique. It’s feared that pirates have taken the yacht, called the Dandelion, and its passengers captive. Two South Africans – including skipper John Sergel, from Durban – are believed to be on board, together with tourists from America, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and France.

The yacht, which left the island of Mayotte on Tuesday afternoon and was expected to arrive in Pemba on Friday, has not been seen or heard from since it departed on a pleasure cruise. Despite being equipped with several communications systems, the location of the yacht has not been reported for days.

Authorities from the various countries represented by the Dandelion’s passengers have become involved with the search for the boat, and an EU plane is currently searching for it at sea. Worries about a pirate capture are yet to be allayed.

[Source: Beeld]
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- Tags:
- Indian Ocean
- missing yacht
- Mozambique
- pirates
- SA yacht
- search
- http://URL John Sergel
  
  Update Dandelion 17.04.2012- please could you publish.
  
  Dandelion arrived safely back in Pemba last night, to many questions regarding our tardy arrival.
  
  The simple answer is bad weather ,unfortunate technical problems and bad communications.
  
  We left Mayotte late on Tuesday in reasonable weather and fully expected to be back in Pemba within 2 days. We had sent e mails to my partners and crews family and friends, which it seems were never received. This was part of the problem.
  
  Unfortunately the weather turned bad, a s/w,with the wind in the wrong directionand the sea like a washing machine and with no motors , as we were experiencing problems with the injectors, our progress was painstakingly slow under sail only.
  
  When it became obvious we were going to arrive later than anticipated,We started trying to call the radio network, but could only hear transmissions in what sounded like Chinese and though trying every day, just could not make contact. .We also tried on vhf, and spoke to a ship at one point to ask for a weather report.
  
  We finally spoke to an aircraft to find that there was a full scale search for us. Only later did I realise that the original e mails saying that we had injector problems had not been received by families etc.
  
  I am so very grateful that we were not intercepted by pirates, but also very sorry that so many people- partners, friends,families and organisations were unnecessarily worried , and that our late arrival caused so much trouble.
  
  I would like to thank all the amazing people ,agencies and organizations that swung into action when we did not arrive- you were all incredible and my heartfelt gratitude to you for all your efforts. It is a wonderful feeling as a sailor to know that there are such dedicated individuals there to help.
  
  My words cannot express how grateful I am.
  
  Again, my heartfelt thanks to you all
  
  John C Sergel
  Adventure Tropicale
  web: adventuretropicale.com
  face book: Adventure Tropicale
  email: adventure@safrica.com
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Missing: SA Pleasure Cruise With Seven Passengers

16 Apr 2012 by Janey Bee in Travel, World

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