Kitesurfer Saved 1500 nm Southeast of Hawaii

by Blackwattle Studios on 12 Dec 2008 While the world's speed record bodies argue about whether a kiteboard is a sailing boat or not for the purposes of speed records, an Amver container ship did not bother to ask the question when they steamed to the rescue of French kite surfer Anne Quemere this week.

Anne, who had left San Francisco on November 4 on her 19 ft kite sailing boat heading for Tahiti, had traveled some 3,500 kilometers. She announced she was scrapping her trans-Pacific odyssey on Wednesday after being caught in the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), more picturesquely known as the Doldrums.

She was adrift and dangerously low on supplies when she decided to abandon ship 1500 nautical miles southeast of Hawaii. After trying to navigate back into good winds for almost a week Quemere notified French rescue authorities of her situation. The Maersk Mytilini, an Amver participating container ship, was diverted to rescue her.

Recognizing her remote location, the French had enlisted the help of the United States Coast Guard. The United States Coast Guard Fourteenth District Command Center quickly queried the Amver system for participating vessels near the distress location and diverted the Panamanian flagged container ship. The Mytilini, managed by the Danaos Corporation of Piraeus, Greece, sailed at top speed to the waypoint, successfully rescued the lone adventurer and are estimated to arrive in Balboa, Panama on Saturday Dec. 13th. Anne is then to fly back to France with her father.

Anne Quemere, 42, is the only woman to have rowed solo across the Atlantic Ocean in both directions without assistance, had been bidding to steer her 5.5-meter (18 foot) vessel some 3,800 nautical miles to French Polynesia.

About Amver:
Amver, sponsored by the United States Coast Guard, is a unique, computer-based, and voluntary global ship reporting system used worldwide by search and rescue authorities to arrange for assistance to persons in distress at sea.

With Amver, rescue coordinators can identify participating ships in the area of distress and divert the best-suited ship or ships to respond. Prior to sailing, participating ships send a sail plan to the Amver computer center. Vessels then report every 48 hours until arriving at their port of call.

This data is able to project the position of each ship at any point during its voyage. In an emergency, any rescue coordination center can request this data to determine the relative position of Amver ships near the distress location. On any given day there are over 3,300 ships available to carry out search and rescue services. Visit http://www.amver.com to learn more about this unique worldwide search and rescue system.