Rescued French yachtsman feared for his life

by Rebekah Cavanagh, Territory News/Sail-World on 16 Oct 2009 A FRENCH yachtsman has told of how he feared he would never see his wife and baby again after the boom broke on his yacht and he was left drifting for two days off the remote coastline of Australia's Northern Territory.

Regis Orand, 39, was disorientated, had not slept for 48 hours and was on to his last drops of bottled water when his luck changed and a boat chanced to come across him.

The boat's skipper called police to raise the alarm and then anchored alongside the stricken sailor for the night until police arrived the next day and towed his vessel ashore.

'I have that captain to thank for my life - if he didn't call rescue, I don't think I'd be here,' Mr Orand said.

The sailor was then rescued by Minjilang Police - with the help of local fisherman Rob Jordan and his boat - near Oxley Island off the Cobourg Peninsula, about 270km northeast of Darwin on Tuesday morning.

Mr Orand, a father-of-one, had left Gove on Thursday morning for the five-day sailing trip to Darwin and struck trouble two days later.

He said the boom broke in strong winds and his auto pilot was malfunctioning so he was forced to steer the boat manually.

He said his constant attempts to radio for help failed.

'I thought I was going to die,' he told the NT News on arriving to safety in Darwin yesterday.

'When you are alone on a boat and have to steer all the time you can't cook or sleep - and when you can't eat or sleep problems start.

'I had started to hallucinate and was seeing things in front of the boat that weren't there.

'I only had time to go fetch oranges or bananas and that is not enough.

'I was on to my last bottle of water when the captain came across me.

'He noticed my boom was broken and radioed me to make sure I was okay.'

Mr Orand said when he was taken back to shore at Croker Island by police he telephoned his wife back home in Tahiti to let her know what had happened.

'She is a sailor too - but I think a better one than me,' he said.

He said a big thank you to all those involved in his rescue.

The boat had been docked at Gove since last year when he and his wife and their baby sailed from New Caledonia to Cairns and up to Gove.

He had returned for a three-week holiday to sail the boat to Darwin and put it in dry dock until the next time the couple visit Australia.