Lost Solo Sailor in Caribbean

[grantmc]

The video below raises a number of issues in respect to a couple of solo sailors recently lost. In lost I mean that they just disappeared. The video is primarily concerned with sailor Andreas Sipsakas, a 40 y/o Estonian solo sailor. He's not been seen or heard from since 11 June 2019, when he set off his two EPIRBs 50 minutes apart. He departed Negril, Jamaica aboard his 10mtr sloop SV Salacia 6 June.

Here's a link to a BoatWatch report giving much more information about Andreas and his yacht.

In posting this thread I am interested to know others thoughts on the safety and security of solo sailing. Often times people post about the obvious impossibility of maintaining a watch, and so the prospect of collision. But the video offers another possibility, that being piracy and murder.

It also makes we wonder, are there records kept of missing sailors, how many people do go missing. Is there a register that we should notify at the start of each trip? And I appreciate that Boatwatch.org does a fantastic job of maintaining a register of those missing, but it's an 'after the event' service.

Youtube Video about Mr Sipsakas.

[Messing About]

Thanks for sharing this story and important awareness warning.