#French #sailor #survives #hours #capsized #boat #Spain
A 62-year-old French sailor was rescued in the Atlantic off Spain after surviving for 16 hours in a tiny air pocket under his capsized sailboat, the Spanish Coast Guard said on Thursday.
Laurent Camprubi fired a flare after his boat, the Jeanne Solo Sailor, ran into trouble around 8:30 p.m. Monday when it was 14 miles (22 kilometers) from the Sisargas Islands off the northwestern Spanish region of Galicia, the Coast Guard said in a statement.
A rescue ship and three helicopters were dispatched immediately and the search team found the boat overturned in the darkness.
A diver was lowered onto the ship’s hull and tapped it to look for signs of life. Camprubi started knocking from inside, screaming for help.
But because of the rough seas, the rescuers then had to work “frantically” to prevent the boat from sinking before they could reach the stricken French sailor.
They attached buoys to its hull, and the next day two divers with flashlights swam under the boat and saw Camprubi wearing a neoprene survival suit. The divers handed a stake to Camprubi, who immediately grabbed it.
“A face appeared with open eyes,” the Coast Guard statement said. “He fell towards us… we pulled him to the surface.”
Once on the surface, Camprubi – a veteran sailor who has won several regattas – was flown by helicopter to the hospital for a check-up. He escaped unhurt.
“I knew they were there and that they would rescue me, that they would not let me down. It was a matter of time, I had to survive for myself and my family,” Camprubi was quoted as saying in the statement.
The Coast Guard said Camprubi was rescued around noon Tuesday, allowing him to spend 16 hours under the boat with “only 30 centimeters (12 inches) of air”. She described the rescue operation as “verging on the impossible.”
Juan Ferrer, head of rescue operations for the Spanish Coast Guard, said the wetsuit Camprubi was wearing saved him from hypothermia.
He also commended the French sailor for “calmly awaiting our arrival”.
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