On Saturday June 11, at 5:25 a.m., the CROSSAG (Antilles-Guyana Regional Operational Center for Surveillance and Rescue) received a Mayday call on the VHF from a boater who is not in absolute danger, but struggling to get back to Marigot Bay.
The CROSS then transmits a PAN-PAN message (emergency call concerning the safety of a ship) in case someone in the vicinity can come to help.
The yachtsman is approaching Marigot Bay on his 35-foot sailboat; but his genoa is unusable and he can no longer start his engine, dirt being in the supply pipes. To finish complicating matters, his anchor is stuck in the windlass and it is impossible for him to raise or lower it.
The yachtsman cannot enter the Fort Louis marina by his own means, without his mainsail, nor anchor without an anchor.
Leaving from Trinidad and having not slept for 3 days, the yachtsman was exhausted and requested towing assistance to the Fort-Louis marina.
No ship in the area having responded to the PAN-PAN message, the CROSS then engaged the SNSM station of Saint Martin at 5:40 a.m. to go and provide assistance.
Five volunteer crew members answered the call and left the Marina at 6 a.m. aboard the RIB “Rescue Star”.
Less than 10 minutes later, they are alongside the sailboat which has lowered its mainsail and drifted while waiting for the SNSM.
The Rescue Star transfers one of its team members to the sailboat to take the helm, and bring it back to Marina Fort Louis where they arrive shortly before 7 a.m.
With his boat now safe, the yachtsman can finally rest and sleep, before tackling the various necessary repairs.
Also note the drink organized by METIMER during the Fête de la Mer on Stéphane Mazurier's catamaran SCOOBI TOO, in tribute to Jean-Claude van Rymenant, former boss of the SNSM station in Saint-Martin from 2001 to 2016, who died last January 27. On this occasion, Paula, from the Time-Out Boat-Yard (TOBY), provided a large poster in memory of JCvR.
During the previous week and in accordance with Jean-Claude's wishes, his children Téva and Ian traveled to Vevey, Switzerland, to lay his ashes with those of his mother.
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