|
|
|
|
LOSS
of the Sailing Yacht MAPEMA
Daughter
of survivor pleads: “Get Winlink and an EPIRB”. What
follows is a brief report that was prepared by the daughter of Udo Trost who
survived a shipwreck in the North Atlantic. He was still in hospital as at July
18, 2003 with a possible infection of a wound incurred during the emergency. He
and his family are obviously still in a state of shock. On the one hand they are
all very happy that Udo survived but they are sad because of the loss of MAPEMA
that took Udo 15-years to build. His
daughter Marion writes: “Today,
the day after, we are all still in a state of shock. We cannot really believe
that this horrible accident happened. We can’t even imagine what my Dad feels
- loosing his home and his life’s work. Over a period of 15 years he built the
steel vessel MAPEMA (named after his children Markus, Peter and Marion) all by
himself. Everything was made with great care. Sailors will understand when I say
that she (MAPEMA) had her own soul. Ten years ago, my Mom and Dad started the
journey of their new life as cruisers – they wanted to spend the rest of their
lifetime on MAPEMA. If you ever have met them and seen MAPEMA you will know it
was a special relationship. Anyway,
yesterday morning 7.00h local German time it all fell apart. I received a
telephone call from the US Coast Guard based in Virginia, USA, telling me that
they received an emergency signal from my Dad’s Emergency Position Indicating
Radio Beacon (EPIRB) that he has onboard. I
was talking with Mr. Frank Worrell of the Coast Guard and I must really, really
thank him for being so nice, calm and patient, while I was trying to find phone
numbers of amateur radio services to try to find out what had happened. Since at
home our telephone and email are on the same telephone line, I wrote down Mr.
Worrell’s telephone number and thereafter checked the email. Our horrible fear
got confirmed by an email message that my Dad had sent via Winlink before sinking, saying that he had an collision with an "unknown" object,
that there was water in the ship that he was trying to pump out with three pumps
and, finally, that if we didn’t hear from him anymore – he would activate
the EPIRB. I
called Mr. Worrell back and he said, that he would right away make contact with
boats in the general area from which the signal was received. A few minutes
later, he called me back to let me know that there were two ships about two
hours away from the scene of the accident. In
the mean time I contacted several radio amateurs, asking them to send messages
over the radio to check if there are other sailboats following him making the
same crossing with the request for them to look out for him or the MAPEMA and
also to warn them that there is something floating that can even destroy a
steel-hulled boat. As it transpired, a few days before there was a heavy storm
in this area, and it could be that a carrier had lost a container or something
else overboard. Three
hours later I received another call from Mr. Worrell that I will never forget
– in just three words “FOUND AND SAVE!!!” and that still in his calm and
friendly voice. I still have to thank him for being this way! He told me that
the boat Baltic Cloud found him, that they had pulled alongside and that he is now on
board and in good health. A
short time after, I received another call telling me that my Dad had been for 8
hours in his dinghy with the un-inflated life raft still hanging on but that,
regrettably, MAPEMA had sunk. This had all happened in the dark of night. A
little later, Mr. Worrell helped me to find the satellite telephone number of
the Russian vessel so I could thank Captain Sergji, and ESPECIALLY THE CREW OF
“BALTIC CLOUD” for helping and being so friendly when picking up my dad and
even giving him a whisky right away!!! This
is all that I can tell you for now. My Dad will write more, when he arrives back
in a week. Our thanks go to everybody that helped us: the Winlink Amateur Radio System; the US Coastguard; all the amateur
radio stations; the Caribcoms, the boats helping and searching, the German
Rescue Office and, of course, the BALTIC CLOUD for being so quickly there and my
dear MR. FRANK WORRELL!!!! I don’t know if I forgot anyone but for everybody
who worried with us - thank you! And thank you to my Dad, who stayed calm,
didn’t panic and did things the right way! And
for the future – PLEASE SAILORS, it doesn’t matter how much it costs to
get an EPIRB and join Winlink (when you don’t need it anymore you can
always sell it.) It can save your life – and that’s a lot more valuable. It
can also protect your loved ones at home from getting a heart attack if ever you
are reported missing at sea. Marion
and family” Obviously,
more information would be helpful about the cause of sinking and the failure of
the life raft to inflate. However, AussieWinlink is afraid that Udo and his
family may not be able to tell us more than we already know. Yet the success of
the rescue again demonstrates that communications from vessels on the high seas
and others in remote locations is important. The Winlink Development Team and
the participating amateur radio stations around the world must surely be proud
to have played a role again in providing this humanitarian service and helping
save a human life. AussieWinlink
is with even greater determination working for the establishment of Winlink
Participating Mail Box Offices in Australia. That would allow reliable radio
communications from and to vessels in the South Pacific and Indian Oceans and
Australia’s seas and outback areas. AussieWinlink |
|
