Strong wind up to storm force in North Spitsbergen
There have been strong winds up to storm force in northern Spitsbergen yesterday (Monday – 2017/09/18). Two smaller boats seem to have gotten into potentially serious difficulties. Emergency signals have been triggered and search and rescue forces are in the area with helicopters and coast guard ships.
SV Antigua (where the present author is on board) is also in the area, but we did not have more problems than some cases of seasickness during our sailing passage yesterday. So SV Antigua is NOT affected by any serious problems.
Update: after several hours searching in the northwest of Spitsbergen, where SV Antigua also assisted, the boat was found »in good condition«. The SAR mission was officially abandoned by the coast guard. At the moment, no further details regarding the identity of the boat or other are available.
Update: According to Svalbardposten, it was a local sailing boat from Longyearbyen. The emergency beacon was lost and automatically activated during heavy weather. The crew was not aware of that.
Source: Rolf Stange via OnSat-Mail directly from SV Antigua
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last modification: 2017-09-25 ·
copyright: Rolf Stange