Seven people aboard a South African yacht, including two Durban sailors, are missing off the coast of Mozambique.
Durbanites Frank Joubert and skipper John Sergel, and the crew of the Dandelion, were last in contact with port authorities last week, while travelling between the Mayotte Islands in the Indian Ocean to Pemba, in northern Mozambique.
The Dandelion left Dzaoudzi on Mayotte at 3pm last Tuesday and made contact with harbour authorities at 6pm.
The rest of the crew include French co-skipper Izabella Moallic, American Gianvieve Mancuso, her German husband Alexander Weyhe, a Briton Jason Morenikeji, and Dutchman Jasper van Straaten.
A search-and-rescue mission, headed by the European Union’s anti-piracy force in Djibouti, is looking for the crew who will have run out of food and water.
On Tuesday, Van Straaten posted on his Facebook page that they were experiencing boat troubles.
His message read: “In Mayotte, stuck on a catamaran with two broken down starter motors and no wind … perhaps Thursday there’s wind?”
The family of the crew have turned to Facebook for help and have also asked people to pray for the sailors.
One of the owners of the Dandelion Leo Kroone, said they were getting conflicting reports as to when the crew left the Mayotte Islands in the Comoros.
“We are battling to get hold of anybody in the Comoros. We are just not getting through,” Kroone said on Monday.
“We are trying to get hold of the guys who worked on the motor and we are also looking to get hold of the port captain to find out exactly when they left. If they left on Thursday they are just a bit overdue. If they left on Tuesday we should be worried,” he said.
The journey to Pemba in Mozambique should have taken no more than two days.
“We don’t want to be alarmist just yet. Yachts often are delayed because of no wind and they could be held up by an extra day or so. We are not freaking out just yet. We are however concerned because it is pirate waters and it is possible (that they may have been captured).”
Kroone said they were hopeful that the crew was safe because they had not activated the emergency distress beacon known as an Epirb.
“If they were under attack it would be standard procedure that they activate the Epirb to alert everybody to where they are. Why they would not have done that I don’t know.
“I am a sailor and I would immediately activate my Epirb to let people know I am in trouble.
“The Epirb is like a mayday (signal) and why they did not activate it beats me. Which means that it is not a mayday situation and they are just struggling to sail. But the worry is that nobody has seen them.”
Kroone said they were now in a Catch-22 situation.
“We don’t want to be alarmist but at the same time we do not want to leave it too late because they will be getting away from us. If they were captured by pirates then they would take them to Somalia and that is a good two-week sail away. And we need everybody to respond.”
Sergel’s girlfriend Heather Steyn, said she had last spoken to him a week ago.
“We are all just waiting around for news. We know nothing more than has already been said. I am hopeful,” she said.
The commodore of the Royal Natal Yacht Club, Richard Crockett, said it was too early to panic.
“Yachts often take a bit longer to arrive at destinations. These things happen regularly, they may have broken something and need to repair it or they may just have no wind.
“We can’t say for sure (that they are missing) as these things happen,” he said.
Spokeswoman for the US embassy in Pretoria, Elizabeth Kennedy-Trudeau, said the US government was working closely with the other governments which had citizens on board the yacht.
“I can’t speak of the specifics but we are working with the other governments, take a look and see what plan of action we should take,” she said.
On Sunday, Mancuso’s mother Gabrielle, and mother-in-law Evy Weyhe, appealed on Facebook for prayers and the safe return of their children.
Said Gabrielle: “I need your prayers. My son, Sal Mancuso, and I have been instigating a massive search in the Indian Ocean for my daughter Gianvieve Mancuso and son-in-law Alex Weyhe.”
She said the couple, who are believed to be in the process of setting up a holiday resort in Mozambique, had left on the cruise aboard the Dandelion for a short holiday on April 2.
She said they were due back in Pemba on April 10.
Gabrielle said the last e-mail from her daughter was on April 7. - Daily News