On June 24 at approximately 2:30 p.m., the crew of 57.6-meter M/Y W found a 29-year-old man floating in a “pool toy” style doughnut raft off the coast of Malaga, Spain, according to Boat International. He was stranded at sea for five days before being rescued, airlifted to a hospital, and treated for injuries.
Capt. Marc Wellnitz told Boat International about the “surreal” moment the crew spotted someone waving at them from the water. The man was wearing a black wetsuit in a black raft, so crew thought they were looking at a piece of debris so “the fact we spotted him was a miracle of its own,” he shared.
The W crew lifted him from the water onto the yacht and treated him for sunburn, open wounds, and suspected early onset hypothermia. “He was extremely weak and not quite coherent,” Wellnitz shared.
It was determined there were no others in the water, and then the man was airlifted to a hospital. Wellnitz said the crew “performed admirably” with the rescue. “We didn’t just rescue someone, we had to evacuate someone by helicopter,” he said. “How does one train for a helicopter evacuation?”
The captain suspects the man jumped from a passing ship on the way to Spain and attempted to swim to shore. “Anybody wearing a wetsuit [made] a planned move to be in the water,” he said.
The rescue took about two hours, and the yacht has since continued with her journey to the Balearics. The man was carrying identification, a phone, and money in a waterproof pouch under his wetsuit and is expected to make a full recovery.
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