We are set for the night and decided to slow down as the Spanish Coast Guard has issued now a PAN PAN PAN message via Navtex concerning migrants boats drifting from Aftica towards the Canary Islands. I will post this message here a bit later once connected to the internet. It seems that a bunch of boats has left recently trying to take advantage of the current wind situation although this seem to happen on an ongoing base. The other day a report was issued that people got rescued from a boat drifting 200 nautical miles Southwest of Gran Canaria. At that time it became clear, that the trade winds would blow them all over the atlantic with no chance to survive. As this is a very delicate subject, I am grateful that we had a seminar on this particular challenge organized by Trans-Ocean e.V. It was supported by the German Police during the course of the “Losseglertreffen” I attended earlier this year. We got very good advice and direction to manage such a situation. For this reason I prefer “land, ho!” at daylight although, as you can read above, these boats can drift anywhere at anytime. A sharp look-out on the radar will be key tonight for the very unlikely event of an accidental encounter.
Fair winds…
Bernd
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