Rescued, Briton lost at sea for 2 days
A BRITISH yachtswoman left adrift when her boat capsized during a solo round-the-world race was finally rescued yesterday.
Susie Goodall, pictured, was picked up by a 38,000-tonne Chinese cargo ship that had been diverted to help.
The 29-year-old was stranded more than 2,000 miles away from Cape Horn in the notoriously dangerous Southern Ocean when her boat was hit by a storm.
The vessel flipped over and its mast snapped when it was battered by 60 knot winds and waves of up to 4m.
At one point the boat rolled so violently she was knocked out. When she came to, she raised a distress signal, which was first picked up by coastguards tens of thousands of miles away in Falmouth, Cornwall.
As race organisers and Chilean maritime search and rescue teams worked together to save her, a cargo ship 480 miles south-west of Miss Goodall’s location was asked to help her.
The ship, named Tian-Fu, diverted its journey from China to Argentina.
As the yachtswoman’s boat engine was broken, the 119-metre cargo ship was forced into a tricky manoeuvre to get close enough for a rescue.
Miss Goodall then had to use a harness to attach herself to a swinging hook before being lifted to safety.
Once aboard, she celebrated her rescue with a post on Twitter that read: ‘ON THE SHIP!!!’
Miss Goodall was the only female competitor – and the youngest – in the Golden Globe Race, a 30,000-mile solo non- stop sailing competition. The event is being held to commemorate the 1968 race of the same name, also known as the ‘Voyage for Madmen’.
Miss Goodall was in fourth place before she crashed out of the race and spent more than two days adrift before being rescued.
Despite the tough conditions, she showed a gritty sense of humour in a series of tweets, once saying how she longed for a cup of tea when the yacht’s cooker broke down. In her last message to race coordinators before her boat was damaged, Miss Goodall reported: ‘Taking a hammering! Wondering what on Earth I’m doing out here.’