Wave of Relief: PLB3 Guides Rescue to Stranded Sailor

1 lives saved

Boating

Ocean

Weather

Wind

What happened?

I set off sailing solo last Saturday, heading to Brixham where I was to meet my crew for an event on Sunday and for the return journey to the Exe.

Shortly after leaving the Exe, I noticed one of the reefing pennants was cleated off with some tension on the line, distorting the sail. Unfortunately, the line was on the opposite side of the boom. I headed into the wind and eased the mainsail to sort it out.

The next thing I knew, I was under the boat and then being dragged alongside by my safety line. The boat must have heeled suddenly due to a gust or a larger wave.

Typically, the boat would luff up in such circumstances, but this time it kept going. By easing the mainsail, I had inadvertently set the perfect sail settings for the boat to sail steadily without intervention.

I was now on the starboard side, which was unfortunate because the emergency recovery ladder was on the port side.

I managed to get one leg over the coaming but couldn’t go any further, and I couldn’t reach the tiller. After a while, I decided to unhitch and try to grab the rudder as it passed. I missed!

I attempted a few swimming strokes to catch the boat, but it was sailing comfortably on a course to nowhere. The good news was that the big yellow bladders of my inflated life jacket were very comforting, as was the long automatic aerial from my rescueME PLB3.

I decided to swim towards an angling boat in the distance. After a while, a powerboat seemed to be heading in my direction, and the helm fished me out. Shortly afterwards, the RNLI lifeboat arrived (along with other boats responding to the PLB), and we went to recover my boat and return to the Exe.

Words of wisdom

Here is a quote from RNLI Exmouth: “The casualty’s life was almost certainly saved by the combination of his PLB and lifejacket, which gave us both an accurate location and allowed him to stay afloat until help arrived.”

Thank you note to the Ocean Signal team