News / Halcrow airlifted to safety
SHETLAND yachtsman Andrew Halcrow has been airlifted from his stricken vessel and taken to Punta Arenas, in southern Chile.
His family confirmed on Sunday evening that he had arrived in the city at around 5pm British time.
Halcrow, from Burra, was four months into a second attempt to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe when the mast of his yacht Elsi Arrub broke in a huge storm west of Cape Horn, on Saturday.
The 54 year old alerted the coastguard in Punta Arenas and has been waiting for more than 24 hours to be rescued from an area around 150 miles west of Chile’s southern most province Magallanes and Antartica Chilena.
Speaking from their home in Hamnavoe, his wife Alyson said the first thing Andrew had to do after arriving was to give a number of media interviews.
She said: “He is now in a hotel and pretty tired. I think it was just all hitting him. He will have a shower, something to eat and then go to bed for a proper night’s sleep.
“The family is very relieved that he is in Punta Arenas and that everything happened fine for him. Now we just have to wait and see what is going to happen to Elsi Arrub.
“Nobody expected this to happen, and all this was by no fault of Andrew at all, unfortunately it was the boat that faulted and not him.”
She added that they were going to take stock over next few days and would then decide what to do next.
Halcrow had set off from Falmouth on what was thought to be a 13 month voyage in November, determined to complete the journey after a previous attempt in 2006 was cut short when he had to be rescued 300 miles south west of Australia with a burst appendix.
At the time Elsi Arrub was thought to be lost, but months later, in spring 2007, Halcrow was stunned when he got news that his much loved yacht had been found still afloat.
He was eventually reunited with Elsi in May 2007 when she arrived back in Shetland onboard one of Streamline’s cargo ships.
Here is a link to a Sky News video which shows Andrew Halcrow being airlifted: http://news.sky.com/story/1223242/chilean-navy-rushes-to-rescue-british-sailor
Here Alyson Halcrow describes how her husband was airlifted from Elis Arrub:
{code playerAudio|01|http://www.shetnews.co.uk/images/audio/140310_alyson_halcrow.m4a}
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