It's nearly 11.30pm, and the day is practically done. It was a bright and sunny day, but the first occurrence of our summer pests, the midges, has left me scratching all day. The mercury nudged up to 19C in the afternoon, although cloud and wind made it feel rather cool at times.
There is no indication as to the fate of the two crew missing from the yacht Actuel, found adrift some 700 miles southeast of its last reported position. Apparently, its sail was torn and partly furled as well as reefed, indicating that the weather may have been stormy. Loose items were lying to one side of the vessel. She did not carry the legally required emergency position beacon, which activates when immersed in water or rolled over, which might have happened. Thoughts go out to the relatives of the missing; experienced yachtsmen Gaétan de la Goublaye, 62 and his friend Denis Guilmin, 47.
Locally, there will be a radio debate on Friday about the Sunday sailings. Judging by the furious exchange of views in the local news website, this could be interesting. If you can be bothered, the debate is carried live on Isles FM (http://isles.fm) from 1700 BST, that's 1200 EDT in the US.
Thankfully that is one thing we do not have to put up with here - midges, I know they are quite bad up north.
ReplyDeleteI still have unused midgy spray from when I visited Scotland and the Western Isles Guido. It was too cool for them then..thank goodness!
ReplyDeleteHow frightening for the sailors lost at sea. It must have been a terrifying death for them. God bless them!
I hope they are able to keep the intention of sailing on Sunday's at bay. It is nice to think that somwhere someone is hanging on to a way of life that is fast disappearing elsewhere.
Jeanie