Three crew members aboard a French-registered yacht were yesterday rescued from the rough seas after making a distress call while battling the waves about 90 miles off Delimara Point.
On board the 28-foot long sailing yacht Samod Sea were its 77-year-old Dutch skipper, an Italian man and an Australian woman, who were plucked to safety in a joint operation by the Italian maritime rescue authorities and the Armed Forces of Malta (AFM).
In a blow-by-blow account of what happened, the AFM said that, at 1.19 a.m., they were informed by the Italian authorities that the Samod Sea, that had left Crete six days earlier, was in distress and that the crew had to be rescued. Force eight winds from the north east were blowing at the time and a swell of over five metres was reported in the area.
The vessel was initially assisted by the mv Arcangelo, which, however, was unable to rescue the yacht's crew because of its high freeboard.
The Malta rescue cooperation centre coordinated with the Italian navy and air force and, subsequently, an Italian navy SH-3D rescue helicopter successfully winched the Italian man and the woman from the yacht between 7 a.m. and 8.30 a.m. about 75 nautical miles off Malta and 80 nautical miles off Capo Passero, Sicily. They were taken to Catania.
The skipper refused to leave the vessel, the AFM said. An AB 212 helicopter, belonging to the Italian Military Mission in Malta and operated by a joint Italian-Maltese flight crew, was put on standby for any eventual use. A about 8.45 a.m. it had to be dispatched to the Gozo General Hospital in Victoria to conduct a medical-evacuation of a patient who required urgent treatment at the Mater Dei Hospital.
Later in the morning, the yacht's skipper was taken on board the MV Saipem-FDS and was expected to arrive in Malta last night.
The AFM also reported that its Maritime Squadron was deployed to a "weather-induced scenario" at Sliema Creek, where two Captain Morgan Cruises vessels - the Fernandez 2 and the Marianne - broke away from their moorings and were wrecking smaller vessels.
The search and rescue launch Melita 2 was also on site to assist in the operation.