Search continues for missing Canadian sailor

by Sail-world.com on 21 Nov 2009 An extensive aerial search over the last three days is continuing for a 68 year old Canadian sailor Hubert Marcoux who set out from Halifax on November 9th to sail 740 nautical miles south to Bermuda and is now considered overdue. There has been heavy weather on the eastern seaboard over recent days.

The Halifax-based Canadian Joint Rescue Coordination Centre, (JRCC) who are responsible for the coordination of all marine Search and Rescue (SAR) operations in eastern Canada, along with the the New York Air National Guard's 106th Rescue Wing, with a HC-130 Hercules search and rescue aircraft with para-rescue jumpers and rescue equipment on board are now searching the ocean between Virginia and Bermuda for the overdue 45-foot sailboat, the Mon Pays.

Search crews have been attempting to contact the man via radio for the last three days and four military aircraft have been searching the area north of Bermuda for any sign of the yacht. The Mon Pays was reported to have flares, life jackets and a radio on board.

Another yacht which left Halifax the day before the Mon Pays with the same course set for Bermuda recently arrived, four days late and the three sailors aboard reported they had experienced heavy conditions with winds over 60 knots.

Hubert Marcoux is originally from Charlo, on the Baie des Chaleurs in New Brunswick, Canada.

Marcoux's sister Lucy Milroy said her brother has survived many dangerous weather conditions while on his boat. He completed an 18 year world sailing circumnavigation with a solo trip from Australia to Halifax in 2003.

In 2005 he wrote a book about his around the world adventures, a French version Mon tour du monde en 18 ans then the English version Around the world in 18 years.

Marcoux also has brother in Montreal and a brother in New Brunswick.