Three people have been rescued from a sinking yacht off Sri Lanka. Falmouth Coastguard received a call asking for medical advice
on Tuesday evening when the skipper of the 14m (46ft) “Baccus” injured
his arm.

Less than an hour later, in “horrendous” storms, the yacht started to sink. The three people – a couple from Kent and a Belgian man – were rescued by a nearby ship.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said what had first appeared to be a routine request soon became a major rescue.

Falmouth Coastguard arranged for medical advice by connecting
the call from the Baccus crew to a duty doctor at the Queen Alexandra
Hospital in Portsmouth.

The crew contacted Falmouth Coastguard again by satellite phone to say that, in force 11 winds, with high
seas and heavy swells, they had lost steerage of the yacht which was
taking on water.

With an injured skipper and the pumps on board not working, the crew issued a mayday call. The yacht was later abandoned and the crew was taken aboard the merchant vessel Maersk Surabaya, which is en route to Malaysia.