A 62-year-old Frenchman spent 16 hours in a bubble in his capsized boat before being rescued by the Spanish coast guard on Tuesday. The rescue operation, which had to be postponed due to bad weather, was described by one of the divers as ‘on the edge of the impossible’.
Frenchman Laurent Camprubi left the Portuguese capital Lisbon on Sunday morning in a 12-meter sailboat. On Monday evening he sent out a distress signal off the Gallic coast.
Three helicopters and a Spanish Coast Guard rescue boat with five divers on board searched for the ship, which at sunset was found upside down but still floating in the Atlantic Ocean. A diver searching the hull of the ship for any sign of life heard a knock from the sailor from within. However, the sea was too rough for a rescue operation.
Footage shared by the Spanish Coast Guard shows that lifebuoys were attached to the ship to prevent it from sinking further. The next morning, two divers swam under the boat, where they found the skipper in a survival suit.
Camprubi went with the divers and swam under the ship, one of them told local media. He had to be helped because his suit got stuck. Once outside the boat, he was taken to hospital by helicopter. The man did not sustain any injuries from the incident.
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