A German sailor has been rescued by a passing freighter after his yacht sunk hundreds of miles off the coast of Brazil after a collision with a suspected submerged object.

Published 11 months ago

Martin Daldrup, a 59 year old German, was on a voyage from New York to South Africa when he was picked up by a passing freighter after spending more than 20 hours adrift in his life raft.

Daldrup, whose handle is Martin Jambo after the name of his 34-foot Bavaria sloop, has documented his exploits on a popular internet website and in one of his most recent posts reported experiencing foul weather in the hours leading up to his yacht’s sinking.

He has more than 50,000 subscribers to his M Jambo channel and has authored a book “To the Horizon and Beyond” about buying Jambo, his late-life sailing education, multiple single-handed Atlantic crossings and experiences with Covid lockdowns while cruising the Caribbean.

Internet news website BNN Breaking reported that a distress signal from ‘M Jambo’ was received by maritime authorities, immediately triggering a complex rescue operation, given the yacht’s remote location in the Atlantic.

In a post on his social media Martin said he was “sailing on a light wind course at wind force 5 when there was a loud bang and when I looked below, water was already above the floor boards. I’m guessing an underwater collision tore the rudder apart and also a hole in the hull at the stern.”

He said that after the suspected collision, he activated two pumps, but they could not keep up with the amount of water and his boat was sinking fast so he deployed his life raft and made an emergency call from there using his Iridium Go.

Martin was was rescued from his life raft by the freighter Alanis, which was heading for the South African port of Saldanha Bay.

After his rescue Martin posted on his social media site that “I’ve settled on board here (the freighter Alanis). The team is a good team, I had already noticed that during the rescue. The captain had gathered everyone before the sight of my life raft and went through the rescue maneuver with the team as detailed as possible so that everyone knew what he had to do. The crew did it very well.”

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Related News:

• YouTube sailor rescued after ‘Jambo’ sinks in the South Atlantic (Loose Cannon)
• German Sailing Yacht M Jambo Stranded in Atlantic: Rescue Underway (BNN Breaking)

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