Dead by his radio, the mummified body of solo yachtsman
THIS is the mummified body of an adventurer who was found in his drifting, half- submerged yacht off the coast of the Philippines.
Manfred Fritz Bajorat, 59, was discovered seated next to the radio telephone as i f he was trying to make one last Mayday call when he died.
The German sailor had been cruising around the world for 20 years and, though it is not clear when he perished, he had not been in regular touch with anyone since 2009.
Photo albums, clothes and tins of food were strewn around the cabin of the 40ft-long Sayo.
The yacht was spotted by fishermen nearly 40 miles from the coast of the Philippines in the Pacific. The mast was broken and much of the cabin was underwater.
What killed Bajorat is unclear. Dry ocean winds, the heat and the salty air helped preserve his body. Paperwork on board identified him. There is no evidence of foul play. In 2009 in Mallorca he met another world sailor called Dieter who told Germany’s BILD newspaper: ‘He was a very experienced sailor. I don’t believe he would have sailed into a storm. I believe the mast broke after Manfred died.’
Dr Mark Benecke, a forensic criminologist in the city of Cologne, told BILD: ‘The way he is sitting seems to indicate that death was unexpected, perhaps f rom a heart attack.’
Bajorat’s body was taken for an autopsy in Butuan City and the yacht was towed for a police inspection into the port of Barobo.
Bajorat had clocked up more than half a million nautical miles in the world’s oceans. He came from the Ruhr region in Germany but took to the oceans because he hated the hard winters of his homeland.
The German embassy in Manilla is working with local officials to trace his family in Germany.
It is believed he has a daughter called Nina who works as the captain of a freight vessel.