Stricken British yachtsman in SOS to local pub
LONDON (AFP) — A British yachtsman seriously injured while sailing solo in the mid-Atlantic rang his local pub in the south of England to call for help, reports said Monday.
Alan Thompson, 61, was 600 miles (960 kilometres) off the coast of Bermuda when he injured his pelvis in a fall on his 37-foot (11.3-metre) yacht, the Padolu, on Saturday.
But rather than putting out a general SOS, he picked up his satellite phone and called the landlord of his local, the Bull's Head, in Fishbourne near the port city of Southampton.
"We received a call from him saying he was in trouble. He said he'd been on deck and taken a fall," said 62-year-old publican Roger Pocock, according to the Guardian newspaper.
"It was obvious he was in constant pain. I don't know why he didn't put out an SOS, but maybe he didn't want to make a big alert."
Pocock called coastguards in Falmouth, south-west England, who coordinated a rescue operation with the US Coast Guard and an oil tanker that was five hours away from the yacht.
The Briton, whose yacht was not insured, initially did not want to leave the vessel. "He was upset at the fact he was going to have to leave it," said a spokesman for Falmouth Coastguard.
"We put it to him: 'You have to come off, we can't get you treated on board.' In the end, he agreed it was the best course of action," he added, cited by the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
Thompson had bought the boat second-hand from a dealer in Florida for 55,000 dollars (37,000 euros), said Pocock, adding that Thompson was a very experienced sailor who once ran a sailing school.
Thompson had twice before sailed across the Atlantic, around 20 years ago, and with a crew. He tried to recruit people to sail back with him this time, but when he failed he decided to go it alone, said Pocock.
If the yacht does not sink it could drift towards the US coast, said the coastguard spokesman. But he added: "If it hits the Gulf Stream it could even end up somewhere off the British Isles."
