Three crew members of the 12-meter long pleasure boat Sourire have been rescued by the crew of the French passenger/Ro-Ro cargo ship Cap Finistere.
In the night of September 7, the yacht was in distress west of the Pointe de Grave (Gironde) off southwest France.
Image: Tony Weaver
The Madagascar-registered pleasure boat, built in 1965, was adrift and partially sank on Tuesday, September 8.
The yacht was about 200 km west of the Pointe de Grave (Gironde) when its crew issued a Mayday call at around 10 pm local time on September 7.
The ferry Cap Finistere received the emergency call and headed towards the position. At around 11:57 p.m., the three persons on board were recovered unharmed by a rescue boat of the Brittany Ferries's ship.
The rescued people were taken to Bilbao the following morning at 7 a.m.
A warning regarding the drifting boat has also been issued by the maritime prefecture of the Atlantic. In the morning a helicopter took off in La Rochelle to locate the boat. Later during the day, a second search has been conducted by a maritime patrol aircraft Atlantique 2 of the Naval aviation base Lann-Bihoue, but both searches failed.