UK - Four Cheeki Rafiki crew members, North Atlantic, 16 May 2014

  • #81
This is probably a very stupid question, but, I'm going to ask anyway.

On the Captain's FB, he has this picture of what appears to be the bottom of a boat.

Could this be the Cheeki Rafiki, and does it offer any clue as to the condition of the vessel?

1534334_10152120476844210_1711715687_n.jpg


https://m.facebook.com/andythebear.bridge
 
  • #82
This just breaks my heart. :(
 
  • #83
:-( so sad
 

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  • #84
Sir Richard Branson and Cabinet Minister Jeremy Hunt have joined calls for the search to continue.

However, an Oceanographer, Simon Boxall, has said it's highly unlikely searchers would have missed a bright red or orange life raft. And he also said they are equipped with distress flares, which crew would have fired if they had heard/seen rescue efforts.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-27481564
 
  • #85

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  • #86
This is probably a very stupid question, but, I'm going to ask anyway.

On the Captain's FB, he has this picture of what appears to be the bottom of a boat.

Could this be the Cheeki Rafiki, and does it offer any clue as to the condition of the vessel?

https://m.facebook.com/andythebear.bridge

I'm wondering how they would have got that photo if it was the Cheeki Rafiki.
(Sorry didn't go to the FB - have to sign in)

ETA:
The Daily Sail - Read More:
If the report from the Maersk Kure was correct and the upturned hull they discovered was indeed that of Cheeki Rafiki, then it would indicate that the yacht lost her keel.

.
 
  • #87
Sir Richard Branson and Cabinet Minister Jeremy Hunt have joined calls for the search to continue.

However, an Oceanographer, Simon Boxall, has said it's highly unlikely searchers would have missed a bright red or orange life raft. And he also said they are equipped with distress flares, which crew would have fired if they had heard/seen rescue efforts.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-27481564

Thanks for the article zwieb.
From the article -
I am distressed that the Main Stream Media are putting comments like this in without justifying why it was quoted -

But a spokesman for the US Coastguard said the men could only have survived for around 20 hours after "time of distress".

20 hours?
Why 20 hours?
There was a significant gap between the first alert from the Cheeki Rafiki Crew, and the eventual implementation of the S&R.
Hours had passed then.
Did they already not think they would find them?


The Daily Sail - Read More:
The boat got into difficulties on Thursday when she started taking on water. At the time her crew reported that although they hadn’t identified the source of the leak their position was “stable”, and they were heading for the Azores. Unfortunately, in the early hours of Friday morning, contact was lost with the vessel.

Oddly the alert was not raised for the missing vessel by the US Coastguard until 12.30 (presumably Eastern Time or 1730 in the UK) on Friday which according to the US Coastguard is when they received the distress messages from two 406MHz personal locator beacons registered to Cheeki Rafiki.
-----


Quoting from the BBC link:
Sir Richard Branson said: "People have been at sea for a long period of time in life rafts before and have turned up alright".

Yachtsman Tony Bullimore, who survived five days at after his boat capsized in the Southern Ocean in 1997, said there was "every opportunity that they could still be out there.

Television presenter Ben Fogle, who rowed across the Atlantic, said: "We've heard too many stories over the years of shipwrecked sailors found in tiny rafts."


.
 
  • #88
The 20 hours is just odd. In the water with lifejackets and calm conditions, they'd be very lucky to survive 10 hours, I'd think. In rough seas it wouldn't be that long.

But in a raft? Are they saying the raft would sink after that long, or that the crew would die of exposure in 20 hours?
 
  • #89
  • #90
The 20 hours is just odd. In the water with lifejackets and calm conditions, they'd be very lucky to survive 10 hours, I'd think. In rough seas it wouldn't be that long.

But in a raft? Are they saying the raft would sink after that long, or that the crew would die of exposure in 20 hours?

That's what I was thinking - I'm not sure of how 20hrs was calculated, if they were in the life raft.
ETA: The other thing is that they are assuming all 4 of them did not survive - that is not logical.
If there is only one survivor - that is enough of a reason to keep the search active.
If these men had disappeared on land, the search would still be active.

... and where is that overturned hull now?
... and where is the life raft?
... and where is the ball they released to celebrate 1,000 miles.
:(

ETA: 162,000+ supporters on Change.org to Resume the Search -
Help them reach 200,000.
 
  • #91
  • #92
Paul Goslin's daughter has just spoken on Radio 4.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4

She is very calm and measured and kind. She thanked the US coastguard for everything they have done but asks, if cost really is not an issue, for one more search, just to be sure.

She also said 'that now we know there are other yachts in the area' the families are hoping some evidence can be found, because US coastguard said the search will recommence if new information comes to light.

175,000 people have signed the petition asking for another search now.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-27474390
 
  • #93
  • #94
  • #95
  • #96
Wow, the BBC can't keep up with the way numbers are growing! They just said it was 175 000!

20 minutes onwards its 182,000+
:)
 
  • #97
Sigh. The UK Coastguard has said it believes the US Coastguard did everything it could, based on the information they have been given.

But James Male's father has pointed out the crew let the first beacon run out of power, before they set the second off - so they were alive and thinking rationally.

Families are going to meet the UK Foreign Secretary later, but to be honest, it doesn't look like the UK Government will make a formal request for more searches, and that's the only thing that might produce a result, I think.

This is all very sad. Short of a miracle, there seems very little hope now. :(

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-27486648
 
  • #98
That article suggests the 20 hr window is worked out by a combination of weather conditions, water temp and kind of liferaft the crew were in.
 
  • #99
  • #100
Search Resumed!!

I turned the radio off because I was writing and had given up hope. Went to the kitchen for a cup of tea, and nearly dropped it when I heard the news on the radio in there!

Yay! Thank you US Coastguard!!!!
 

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