L'épouse de Pete Hill disparait en mer

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C est très dur de rebondir après le décès d un très proche .....

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Le récit de ce drame par Pete Hill (source : Junkrig Association)

""We set sail from Durban on the Thursday towards Madagascar

and by Friday morning we were about 50 miles NE of Durban. After breakfast

together I turned in at 8 o’clock to catch up on my sleep and woke again at 10

o’clock. The sailors worst nightmare, Carly was no longer on board. The wind

was blowing westerly at 10 to 12 knots

with a moderate sea on a clear sunny day and Oryx was sailing at about 5.5

knots under the self-steering. I dropped the sails and tried an all ships mayday

on the VHF, but with no replies and no ships in sight. We were 6.5 miles off

the coast and no mobile phone reception. The Navionics tablet app had been

running our course so I decided to run back along our track under engine to try

and find her. I searched until I arrived back at our pre 0800 position and then

went inshore to call for help by telephone. I contacted the NSRI (National Sea

Rescue Institute) who started to organise an air and sea search. I went back

out and started a zig-zag search back along our track. A couple of hours later

3 helicopters arrived and started a search pattern and shortly afterwards 2

NSRI rescue boats arrived from Durban, I later found out that there was also a

light aircraft searching at a higher altitude. At last light the search was

called off for the night and I went inshore to anchor for the night. The next

morning I went back out to the track and continued the search heading SW and

was shortly joined by the two NSRI boats. They had to return to Durban at noon

because of low fuel while I continued the search until the sun set when I

sailed back to Durban.

The NSRI coordinated the search using unprecedented

resources in a very efficient manner, but we failed to find Carly.

The only small consolation is that in the last few weeks Carly

has spent a lot of time with her daughter Irene and more recently with her son

Dylan, who lives in Durban and especially, much time with her delightful 3 year

old granddaughter Hannah.

We will be holding a memorial service for Carly this

Saturday at the Royal Natal Yacht Club.

Pete"

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Phil