The Dream Land mystery
Authorities alerted to disappearance of yacht, which turned up off the coasts of Sardinia, with three-man Alicante crew, who chartered it to 'sail around Ibiza'.
AT THE beginning of this year, three friends, who lived in Alicante, decided to charter a yacht in Palma de Mallorca.
On January 5, the three men, 67-year-old Álvaro Aguirre Presa, 66-year-old Antonio Pérez Carrasco and 48-year-old Fernando Mogica Muñoz, sailed out of Palma port on a €80,000 Bénéteau Cyclades 39 foot yacht called 'Dream Land' chartered from Latitud Cero.
They had originally wanted to sail to Italy, but the vessel did not have the necessary authorisations from the Spanish maritime authorities to sail such a distance, so the three settled for a 10-day charter to sail around the Balearic islands, mainly Ibiza and Formentera.
Son loses contact
On January 7, Álvaro's son, Alvaro Aguirre Arroyo, who lives in Ibiza, got worried as he speaks to his father almost daily, and hadn't heard from him and discovered from a family member that he had charted a yacht.
At the same time, there was some bad weather surrounding the Balearic islands, so Álvaro Jr was genuinely concerned, although he knew that Alvaro Sr. was an expert skipper with 45 years of sailing experience. He went to report his father's disappearance to the Guardia Civil in Ibiza.
Here, they checked that his father had indeed arrived in Palma and had not taken any flights out of the islands.
As his father resides in Alicante, the Guardia Civil sent the missing person's report to Alicante National Police station, who stated they did not have the necessary equipment to initiate a search, and sent the report on to the UDEF (Economic and Tax Fraud Unit).
Álvaro Sr's friends and family, started an intensive Facebook campaign to get signatures demanding the government search for the missing crew and yacht, as they considered that nothing was being done to find his father and friends.
Meanwhile the wives of the other two crew members also reported them missing.
During this time, the yacht's EPIB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) was not turned on, so it was impossible to pinpoint its location. This beacon is turned on by the crew if emergency help is required.
Charter company reports yacht stolen
On January 15, the date of the Dream Land's expected return, the yacht's owner José Maria Jiménez reported it stolen.
He was convinced that the crew had stolen the yacht as he reckoned that Álvaro Sr was an expert in transporting boats.
His reasoning was that if the three friends lived in Alicante and wanted to sail around Ibiza, it would have been cheaper for them to charter a yacht from Alicante.
Authorities start to search
Maritime authorities started to look into the Dream Land's disappearance, even juggling with the possibility that it could have had some sort of problem and could have drifted to the coasts of Algeria or Tunisia.
Patrol boats were sent out, tides and wind patterns were studied, showing indeed that the Dream Land would have drifted to North African coasts. Ports and harbours along the Spanish coastline were alerted in case the Dream Land came in to dock, but all replied that they had not seen it.
And then when hope was fading, and 8 days after the yacht should have been returned, Álvaro Jr confirmed on Facebook that his father had phoned him from the Dream Land, and that all three were 'fine' and on their way back to Palma. In fact he was quite shocked to hear they had been reported missing.
He told his son that the mainsail had torn, and they were sailing back from their location south of Sardinia, using their genoa sail.
He was adamant he did not need assistance of any type but later contacted his son to say they were heading into Syracuse port in Sicily to avoid a storm.
When they arrive back, for sure they will have to give lots of explanations, including why they where in Italian waters and why wasn't the yacht returned in time.
It has been revealed that Fernando Mogica has a police record for drug trafficking and so has Antonio Pérez Carrrasco, who also has a record for manslaughter and recpetion of illegal goods.
Only the skipper, Alvaro Aguirre Presa has a clean sheet.