On Thursday, October 9th at 03:45 am, the DGzRS rescue cruiser BERNHARD GRUBEN rescued a 56 year old Polish sailor from his life raft.
The man from Gdyni was in distress with his nine meter long sailing yacht “Szaman” about two nautical miles west of the island of Juist.
After hitting the ground in shallow water at the “Kachelot Plate” shallow, the keel tore off. Water poured into the hull. The yacht sank.
Skipper Jerzy B., who wanted to sail to Cuxhaven as a single-handed sailor from the Mediterranean, immediately sent a “Mayday” call via emergency channel 16, which was picked up by the coastal emergency radio station “Bremen Rescue Radio”. ?
The rescue cruisers ALFRIED KRUPP / Borkum station, BERNHARD GRUBEN / Norderney station, the rescue boat WOLTERA / Juist station and two fishing trawlers were dispatched to the area of operations by the BREMEN SEENOTLEITUNG of the DGzRS.
At around 3:30 a.m., the wreck of the sailing yacht was discovered in the surf on the Kachelot-Plate by the crew of the rescue cruiser BERNHARD GRUBEN. The shipwrecked man was lifted from the life raft in the daughter boat.
Foreman Christian Koprek: “We first took care of the man in our on-board hospital and then referred him to the island hospital on Norderney for medical observation. The destroyed yacht and the life raft are still outside."