Sailors Rescue Nine Portuguese Fishermen from Sea
by Stephen Ivall, Packet Newspapers on 21 Jun 2008
.. and that made 12 on board.. SW
Two UK sailors from Falmouth on a yacht delivery mission to the Mediterranean found themselves involved in the rescue of nine Portuguese fishermen after their vessel sank within seconds.
Back home in Falmouth this week, Gary Bullen, who was with his friend Tim Hamilton, also from Falmouth and yacht owner Julian Brown had been en route to Spain, said they were 20 miles off the coast of Porto when they spotted the fishing boat Jose Maria listing to port.
'Tim was on watch monitoring shipping around our vessel. The Jose Maria passed one mile from our port side and continued. Tim noticed she was listing to port. As the crew tried to land their catch she listed heavily and capsized within 30 seconds,' he said.
Due to the speed of the incident no mayday message could be given.
The crew abandoned their vessel but none had a lifejacket and no lifeboats were jettisoned, said Gary who with his colleagues on board the Sirene, a 36 foot Benateau went to the rescue.
'We made best speed to the crew who were shouting and waving frantically in the water. The scene was of the crew desperately hanging onto anything that could float,' said Gary.
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All nine of the Portuguese crew were successfully rescued and placed on the yacht, although there was by then little space left.
' Within 20 minutes they had smoked all of Tim's cigarettes, which left him desperate to reach Lisbon!' he added.
Once on board a few of the fisherman were given tea as they were suffering from hypothermia.
Gary who helmed the incident and Tim and Julian liaised with the Lisbon coastguard via their VHF radio and looked after the fisherman until a local trawler steamed to their location.
A boat transfer was carried out using the yacht's small tender.
The Sirene eventually arrived at her final destination of Torrevieja in Spain on June 17 and Tim and Gary flew home to Falmouth while the owner went home to Surrey.
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