A SAILOR from Oswestry was rescued by a Taiwanese fishing crew after a storm hit his boat, leaving him injured and stranded in the Atlantic Ocean.
Ian Herbert-Jones, former avionics engineer for the British Army, called out for help on Monday, April 17, after Southern Ocean storm hit his boat, Puffin, at over 90 knots, taking out his mast, as the vessel took in water.
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The sailor was participating in the Golden Globe Race when the potentially fatal situation happened while approaching Cape Horn, Chile.
Founder of the Golden Globe Race, and Race Chairman, Don McIntyre was on the other side of the phone helping Ian get through it until he was rescued by the fishing crew.
Don explained: “This particular storm was really unique in a couple of ways – it literally appeared out of nowhere.
“It started to form two days before it hit Ian, and although we warned him it was coming there was not much he could do about it, as there was not a lot of wind, so he was sailing very slow.
“About 36 hours before we suggested for him to go south to get away from the centre of it but at that point it looked like it was going to pass him.”
Don added that a day before the storm hit him, weather monitoring apps showed that it would miss Ian completely but its shape changed.
The Race Chairman continued: “At that point , Ian wasn’t able to move anywhere—and he literally could not get out of the way as the winds would just push him back.
“Then the storm intensified - forecast winds pushing higher than 90 knots.”
The two spoke five hours before it was due to hit, planning to drop the main sail switch on his radio beacon to allow his team to track him.
“We knew he was getting hammered by the storm- as we were following the weather—and he was at the edge of the extreme bit,” Don added.
“He then called us and it was a bad connection but it was clear he was in trouble— in real trouble.”
Ian explained to control that he has been nearly washed out of the cockpit twice and that he was taking in water down below, and Don explained that no one would be able to get to him earlier than 12 hours from that point.
Don added: “Many hours later he called us and at that point he said that he had been knocked down and he had been dis-masted and there was water down below, he gave up trying to hand steer the boat, and he was injured.”
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Golden Globe Race were communicating with the Taiwanese Government, the Argentinian Rescue Centre and the British Coastguards, and managed to get Ian to safety.
He was picked up by the crew of Zi Da Wang and sailed for a number of days, but he is now in Cape Town, where, Don says, he is trying to piece himself together after the near-death experience.
The Puffin was let adrift in the Southern Atlantic Ocean and lost power so the boat was lost for a week – until April 24, when the Cospas-Sarsat Argentina System has detected the activation of the EPIRB Primary, which gives Ian a chance to find the vessel.
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