A boat that disappeared in southern France may have reached Sardinia. The family members of the two people who were aboard the Sylphe think so, Emmanuel Rouffio, 63, and Mamoun Rtal Bennani, 34, two expert sailors who left the port of Martigues in the early afternoon on 5 May. Five days later they should have landed in the Balearics.
But something happened and six days later the wife of one of the navigators, having no more news, informed the Regional Operations Center for Sea Surveillance and Rescue (Crossmed). On May 12, the investigation began for the verification in the Mediterranean ports, in the event that the 7-meter-long sailing vessel had arrived in other places.
The last signal transmitted by the boat was picked up on May 6 at 2:57 in the Gulf of Lion area, about one hundred kilometers from the French coast. It was later found that the sea was rough the previous night.
"In the event of serious damage such as dismasting - explain the relatives who wrote to the web editor of L'Unione Sarda to launch their appeal -, the hypothesis of a long drift in the middle of the Mediterranean towards the Spanish, Italian or Algerian coasts it is taken seriously into consideration but makes research laborious because the area is very large ".
The two navigators "were well equipped in terms of safety and had a large supply of water and food".
The western Mediterranean is now under observation and at the moment, given that no wrecks or equipment have been found, "the hope of finding the two sailors alive is still strong".
(Unioneonline / ss)
