The boy who spent three hours in the sea at night before he was rescued by a patrol boat was not “imagining” when he said he was helped by a yacht.
Eight days ago, the 17-year-old jumped into the dark waters in St George’s Bay to escape an unprovoked gang attack in Paceville in the wee hours. Following the incident, his father said his traumatised son even imagined that a yacht had come to save him while out at sea.
But a sailor, who heard moaning at around 3 a.m. on his way back from a race around the islands, said the boy was not dreaming.
“If he thinks he was imagining things, he can put his mind at rest that he was not,” said Royal Malta Yacht Club Commodore George Bonello du Puis, who was in the right place at the right time on a night that could have had fateful consequences.
He said that had they not happened to be sailing back at that time they would not have heard the strange moan and indicated to the army patrol boat that had come to the rescue – but that was completely off the mark – where the sound was coming from.
“It was like looking for a needle in a haystack, so it could have taken them another hour to locate him,” he maintained, adding that, given the boy’s state – he was found semi-conscious and suffering from hypothermia – he could have drowned.
The sailing boat Escape was around 400 metres off St George’s Point when, in the stillness of the night, the sailors heard a moan, which they first thought was coming from the shore.
“We had been at sea for 22 hours and just wanted to get back, but it soon dawned on us that the voice was actually coming from the sea. The moaning was getting louder and we called out to it,” Mr Bonello du Puis said.
“I was shocked. Who in their right senses would be swimming at that hour of the night?”
Escape turned towards land and the voice got louder and clearer and then stopped, making the sailors fear something had happened to whoever it was emanating from.
“We thought the person must have drowned because we stopped hearing the moaning...”
They informed Valletta Port Control and shined a searchlight onto the sea. It did not reveal anyone, but they saw the AFM patrol boat by the land and got its attention to point out that the person was near to them and that caution was needed in that area.
The boy recounted how the strong wind and currents on that night prevented him from swimming ashore and that he battled the waves for three hours before being rescued by the AFM.
But Mr Bonello du Puis failed to understand why the boy had struggled to get back on to land, pointing out that there was not even a slight breeze on the night and that the sea was flat calm.
“There was not a single wave and we were doing 1.5 knots, which is crawling for a boat. In fact, it took us two whole hours to reach the yacht club in Ta’ Xbiex from St George’s Point,” he said.