In the Vendée Globe Race which I have been following for 3 weeks [2020 Vendée Globe Yacht Race [Accueil - Vendée Globe ] had some drama this week: French sailor Kevin Escoffier was rescued in heavy seas off the Cape of Good Hope by fellow competitor Jean Le Cam on Tuesday, more than 11 hours after he send out a Mayday signal when his boat PRB sank. [What happened, exactly is below] He took to his life raft and awaited rescue.*
Shore teams using his EPIRB and PLB [They are: Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons) and PLB (Personal Locator Beacons) which are carried in order to send out location signals when in distress. A 406MHz beacon enables the SAR (Search and Rescue) agencies to quickly and accurately identify and locate a casualty.] The Search and Rescue people in South Africa and Kevin's team did some very fast and nifty calculations (to do with where a life raft in that part of the Southern Ocean would drift) and instructed several boats close to him in the race to try and find him... which was successful.
The story is [from various web sources]:
The closest boat was skippered by a seasoned French sailor called Jean Le Cam on his (non-foiling) yacht Yes We Cam!. It took two hours from when Le Cam stopped racing to when he first spotted Escoffier on his life raft. Le Cam developed engine trouble as he came to his aid and shouted to Escoffier that he would be back. (Engines can be used in emergencies. The propeller has a seal that is to be broken only for self-rescue or rescuing another sailor.) But when Le Cam returned to Escoffier’s last known position, he could not see the raft so race officials told three other skippers to divert to the area and assist in the search.
[He went back and forth in the area about 5 times and then] Le Cam decided to double back to the original location emitted by Escoffier’s emergency EPIRB beacon.
“I saw Kevin, he asked me ‘will you be back?’, I said ‘No, we are doing this now!’. I threw him the life ring and he caught it, and then he managed to catch the transmission bar and that was it.” [He scrambled aboard from the stern.] For the record, Le Cam himself had to be rescued in a previous VG Race.
* * * * * * THE FRENCH NAVY COMPLETE THE RESUCE * * * * * * * * *
These photos [from Maritime Nationale] show the rendezvous with the French navy frigate Nivôse which was near the Kerguelen Islands (three to four days away by sail). The photos show the frigate standing off as their RIB heads over to the yacht and back again. Le Cam then continued on his race .... alone. Why was the frigate there?… to protect French fishing in that part of the ocean.
* * * * * EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED? * * * * * *
[Post-rescue video explaining] “The boat was surfing along a wave. When she reached the bottom she dug into the wave. And that’s when I felt something was wrong. When the boat came back out again it had broken in half. When I say ‘half’, there was a 90 degree angle between the bow and the stern, at the foot of the mast.”
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The rescue mission was coordinated from Les Sables d'Olonne by Vendée Globe Race Direction in collaboration with CROSS Griz Nez and MRCC South Africa. The President of PRB, Jean-Jacques Laurent was at the Race HQ with Race Director Jacques Caraës and the race direction team assisting through the entire process.
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