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Round-the-world sailor rescued after injury traps him in bunk Round-the-world sailor rescued after injury traps him in bunk
(about 3 hours later)
A solo Indian yachtsman trapped in his bunk by a serious back injury thousands of miles from land has been rescued. An Indian sailor who suffered a severe back injury during a solo race around the world has been rescued by a French ship far off the west coast of Australia.
Abhilash Tomy, a competitor in the Golden Globe round-the-world race, was badly injured when his vessel was damaged in a storm that tore off its mast on Friday 2,200 miles (3,500km) from western Australia. After being injured during a storm, Abhilash Tomy drifted in his mastless yacht about 1,900 miles (3,000km) from Perth for four days while maritime authorities raced to reach him, fearful that any moment a strong wave could sink or capsize his vessel.
Race organisers said the 39-year-old Indian navy commander had been “incapacitated on his bunk”. Tomy was helpless, telling race organisers by satellite phone on Saturday he had lost the use of his legs and was confined to his bunk and unable to reach for food or water.
An international rescue mission involving the Australian maritime authorities, a French fisheries patrol vessel and the Indian navy had been trying to rescue the sailor. Ships scrambled to reach the sailor, who was stranded equidistant from Madagascar, Perth and Antartica and, said organisers, “as far from help as you can possibly be”.
They declared success on Monday. “Tomy rescued safely,” tweeted an Indian navy spokesman. On Monday evening a French fisheries vessel was the first to succeed in reaching Tomy, while Australian and Indian long-range P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft circled overhead. “Tomy rescued safely,” the Indian navy posted on Twitter.
Rescuers had been unable to make direct contact with Tomy as his main satellite phone was damaged, and his injury meant he was unable to reach a second satellite phone or his handheld VHF radio. The Indian defence minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, said Tomy was “conscious and doing OK”. Race organisers had been keeping him informed on the progress of the rescue. They said Tomy had stopped replying on Monday morning, suggesting he was “now too weak to transmit”.
Two P8 Poseidons – one from the Australian air force and another from the Indian military – flew over the yacht on Sunday. The decorated Indian navy commander was participating in the race to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1968 Golden Globe yacht race, in which Robin Knox-Johnston became the first man to sail nonstop around the world.
Fears had been growing for Tomy’s safety as conditions in the isolated region can be treacherous, with strong winds and high waves buffeting the yacht and rescue vessels. Seventeen vessels had commenced the 2018 Golden Globe race from Les Sables-d’Olonne in France on 1 July. They were expected to be at sea for at least 200 days, but nearly half had dropped out by 11 September.
India’s defence minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, tweeted that Tomy was “conscious and doing okay”. She said the ship would shift him to a nearby island by evening and that later the Indian navy’s frigate “will take him to Mauritius for medical attention”. The anniversary race is an invitation-only competition that tries to recreate the conditions of the original. The elite participants must circumnavigate the world without GPS, relying on sextants, paper maps and the stars.
Phil Gaden, an Australian Maritime Safety Authority search and rescue officer, said: “It’s going to be a very difficult situation onboard … The yacht is severely damaged with gear hanging over the side. Tomy was sailing a modern replica of Suhaili, the vessel Knox-Johnston piloted in 1968. He and the other sailors were permitted a satellite phone to send two short text messages each day and make one call to race organisers a week. They also have a GPS tracker and spare satellite phone inside a sealed box, but breaching it means disqualification from the race.
“We do know he’s got a very severely injured back and we believe that he’s very restricted in his ability to manoeuvre. We also know he’s having difficulty keeping fluids down.” Tomy, 39, first flagged he was in danger on Friday, sending a message to race organisers that read: “ROLLED. DISMASTED. SEVERE BACK INJURY. CANNOT GET UP.”
The Golden Globe involves a gruelling 30,000-mile solo circumnavigation of the globe in yachts similar to those used in the first race 50 years ago, with no modern technology allowed except the communications equipment. “He encountered terrible weather, where a wave the height of 14 metres [46ft] and winds to the speed of 100 knots plus hit him, and his boat did a 360-degree turn,” said DK Sharma, an Indian navy spokesperson.
Tomy’s yacht, Thuriya, is a replica of Robin Knox-Johnston’s Suhaili, winner of the first Golden Globe. The brief capsizing snapped the yacht’s mast and left Tomy “immobile and incapacitated”, Sharma said. Tomy went silent for 15 hours after sending the first distress message but surfaced again on Saturday, telling organisers he had managed to activate his emergency beacon.
“CANT WALK. MIGHT NEED STRETCHER,” he wrote in messages that day. “CAN MOVE TOES. FEEL NUMB. CAN’T EAT OR DRINK. TOUGH 2 REACH GRAB BAG.”
Indian navy vessels were diverted from exercises in South Africa while the Royal Australian Navy dispatched its 118-metre frigate HMAS Ballarat but both were thought to be at least four days’ journey from Tomy.
In the meantime the sailor said he had managed to grasp cans of ice tea. “HAVING THAT. VOMITING CONTINUINGLY. CHEST BURNING,” he wrote.
Footage of his boat, Thuriya, posted to Golden Globe’s Facebook page on Sunday, showed the yacht bobbing in a heavy swell with its sails draped over the deck.
At about 5.30am GMT on Monday, the French fisheries vessel Osiris braved eight-metre waves and heavy winds to reach Thuriya using two small motorised rubber dinghies. They administered first aid, provided water and retrieved Tomy.
“Tomy is conscious, talking and onboard the Osiris,” rescue coordinators in the Australian capital, Canberra, reported.
He and another sailor, Irishman Gregor McGuckin, whose yacht was dismasted in the same storm, have both been evacuated to Amsterdam Island, a French overseas territory, for medical examination.
The Indian president, Ram Nath Kovind, thanked the Australian and French sailors for their assistance in rescuing Tomy.
“Appreciate our French and Australian friends for being part of the maritime effort to reach and assist this brave voyager,” Kovind wrote on Twitter. “I wish him a speedy recovery.”
Eight competitors remain in the Golden Globe. French sailor Jean-Luc van den Heede, 73, is currently leading, and forecast to reach the finish line in Les Sables-d’Olonne on 17 January.
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