Missing sailor in the caribbean

[mglonnro]

(Copy paste from here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/acti...5989979108204/)

MISSING SAILOR IN THE CARIBBEAN

In the early hours of 11 JUNE 2019, two separate EPIRB activations were received from the S/V SALACIA with solo sailor ANDREAS SIPSAKAS aboard. ANDREAS is a 40 years old man from Estonia on a passage from Jamaica to San Andres, Colombia. His well founded blue water sloop is, Estonian flagged, 10 meters in length, white hull with the name SALACIA on the bow, white sail covers, blue dodger and lee cloths, and a large solar array on a radar arch on the stern. He had a new self activating Viking 4 person life raft aboard, and the vessel was equipped to sail around the world. He also had a dinghy of some sort. Unknown if the life raft was in a canister of a valise. ANDREAS was in good health with no medical issues.

The following is a list of equipment aboard his boat according to his brother:

His equipment:

1. Drone DJI Mavic Air Fly More Combo

2. Samsung phone

3. LENOVA, model 80UD Laptop computer

4. Gopro camera

5. 21" TV on cabin wall

6. Yacht motor is a Yanmar

7. VHF Radio Raymarine RAY 60 with hand station,

8. Two vhf radios (Handheld?)

9. Inmarsat SAILOR sat system with antenna module,

10. Dingy motor Honda 2.3 HP

11. Lewmar anchor screw 1000 w,

12. Solar panels 2 pcs 500 w combined.

13. Automatic raft Viking ocean for 4 person.

14. AIS Vesper Marine sender/receiver

15. Raymarine plotter Axiom pro, with world ocean maps

16. Second plotter Raymarine E80

Safety equipment by latest information:

4 automatic inflating Life vests 4 and 5-6 normal 5-6 PFDs

Viking Ocean style 4 person Life Raft with automatic deployment

Epirbs 2 pcs. Salacia and Bellatrix

shooting flares or rockets 7 pcs

Flares with bright light 7 pcs

Dingy with motor...

Fenders 10 pcs (different sizes)

His last known port of call was the first week in June when he was in Negril, Jamaica, which is a small town and beach resort on the far Western tip of Jamaica. It is unknown whether he was anchored or in some marina there. He departed Negril, Jamaica on 06 JUNE 2019 for San Andres.

EPIRB #1, MMSI 276 005 500, was activated on 11 JUNE 2019 at 0452 UTC (0052 Eastern Time) at position 14 53.6 N / 080 26.8 W.

EPIRB # 2, MMSI 265 656 570, was activated on 11 JUNE 2019 at 0540 UTC (0140 Eastern Time) at position 14 57.8 N / 080 23.4 W.

This general location is approximately 26 NM ESE of the Gorda Bank; 26 NM NNW of the Serrana Bank; 96 NM NNE of Isla Providencia, Colombia. Water depth in the area is approx 3600 feet to 6200 feet deep.

Investigation by the Estonian Coast Guard reported no storms in the area at the time of the EPIRBs being activated. They also obtained a list of the nearby ships sending out AIS signals at the time of the activation.

Upon EPIRB activation, USCG RCC Miami and RCC Estonia immediately began search and rescue operations. A nearby tanker ship, the CTG MAGNESIUM, was diverted to the area and found one of the EPIRBs and and oily life jacket approximately 4 hours after the EPIRB activation. The ship did not see a debris field which would have been present had the vessel collided with another ship and sank, nor were there any other vessels in the area. Also, the USCG dispatched an aircraft to search the area with negative results.

This area off the Gorda Bank has been the scene of many pirate attacks in the past. It may be a likely scenario the S/V SALACIA was the victim of a pirate attack in the middle of the night.

What we need now are to identify other cruisers that have met ANDREAS SIPSAKAS aboard his S/V SALACIA in the past. We are not sure at this time where he had been prior to being in Jamaica. Any cruiser knowing this man is asked to contact Glenn Tuttle - Net Manager, Seven Seas Cruising Association HF Radio Service KPK at e-mail address KPK@ssca.org, or call US phone number 941-456-5070.

I am going to post this information on various Facebook Groups used by offshore cruisers in hopes that someone will know this man and help put together his past travels and other information which may be useful.

Glenn Tuttle - Net Manager
Seven Seas Cruising Association
High Frequency Radio Service KPK
KPK@ssca.org
941-456-5070

[belizesailor]

Saw that notice earlier from another source. Hopefully they find him.

Hope they at least discover what went wrong...there have been infrequent, but significant security issues in that area.

[Hardhead]

It seems a pirate attack at night, in that area and depth, would imply he was possibly boarded while traveling under sail - wouldn't it? Is there any history of this sort of attack? Seems like a pretty hardcore thing to do. I sincerely hope he's somehow okay, and the truth is learned. It always hurts a bit when a fellow enthusiast and sailor disappears while on a solo sail.

[belizesailor]

Yes, there have been such attacks in that area. See CSSN for specifics.

https://safetyandsecuritynet.org/

[GordMay]

See ➥ https://translate.google.com/transla...si&prev=search

[fatherchronica]

A long time ago I lived on the Miskito coast during a time of great upheaval. This is how a story was related to me. A power boat was bring a load of cocaine to the US. It stopped for the night to rest at Cayos Miskitos, a group of mangrove forests off the coast where lobster divers lived. There is no land but there are platforms built in the mangroves, both residential and commercial. Some folks out there boarded the boat and killed the crew and drove the boat ashore near where I lived. They stripped it and burned it. I saw the burned wreckage. a couple days earlier I was offered balls of hard cocaine wrapped in paper the size of softballs from a gunny sack full for $10 US. At the time there were about 28,000,000 old Cordobas to the dollar and as one of under a dozen North Americans in a local population of over 20,000 I was deemed to be rich. If I had been a drug user I would have been in 7th Heaven. Instead I went to the next YATAMA meeting to tell the elders they should round up all that poison and destroy it. They did not as far as I know, and a few months later I was told it happened again but at the next town of any size North of my location. I always keep an eye out wherever I am that I do not leave myself open to crimes of opportunity. Especially when there are starving masses of destitute people. Not saying that happened. There are also whales, ships, heart attacks, electrical failures and myriad other things that could sink a vessel or cause the crew to lose communication. The squalls that used to roar ashore down there were unbelievably fierce and unexpectedly short, but I used to think how scary it would be to get hit by one out there. The locals sailed out to the cays in, mostly, 30 foot open double ended sailboats that looked very similar to whale boats.

[kev_rm]

What is with the inventory - why is that helpful unless you are trying to establish an insurance claim?

[Seasic]

Originally Posted by kev_rm

What is with the inventory - why is that helpful unless you are trying to establish an insurance claim?

Maybe if it was pirates, they may be trying to sell equipment??

[Singularity]

Originally Posted by kev_rm

What is with the inventory - why is that helpful unless you are trying to establish an insurance claim?

A somewhat common practice under the circumstances. Obviously few sailors will see the list, but should someone in the area who has seen the list find any of the listed items for sale, it'd strongly support the conclusion of a pirate action and possibly provide a trail back to the bad guys.
Nothing to do with insurance.

[BenBowSirocco]

Originally Posted by kev_rm

What is with the inventory - why is that helpful unless you are trying to establish an insurance claim?

It is used to help identify a debris field or a collection of things found on a beach.

Classic age of sailing thing to do to help identify shipwrecks was hand out the cargo manifests and see if it could be matched up with what was being sold/found around an area near by to where the ship was last seen.

My hopes and prayers to the missing man, I will keep my eyes and ears open. It may initially sound dark: but a ransom call/note would actually be a good sign he is alive and explain the current situation.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by BenBowSirocco

....

My hopes and prayers to the missing man, I will keep my eyes and ears open. It may initially sound dark: but a ransom call/note would actually be a good sign he is alive and explain the current situation.

No history of kidnappings in this area, just theft. No history of serious injury or murder, just rob & release. One sailor, who had gotten foolishly close to the coast and grounded, even had the "pirates" give him his cell phone so he could "phone home"...while they ransacked his boat.

There was a similar case of a cruiser who disappeared off the Nica Banks quite a few years ago. Similar in that he was also a male single hander. He had been at anchor in the area and the boat was found abandonded with no sign of him.

[waterman46]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

No history of kidnappings in this area, just theft. No history of serious injury or murder, just rob & release. One sailor, who had gotten foolishly close to the coast and grounded, even had the "pirates" give him his cell phone so he could "phone home"...while they ransacked his boat.

There was a similar case of a cruiser who disappeared off the Nica Banks quite a few years ago. Similar in that he was also a male single hander. He had been at anchor in the area and the boat was found abandonded with no sign of him.

This latest disappearance seems to have occured about 150 miles off the coast of Nicaragua, boat under sail. Not similar at all to previous stories given in this thread. And references to piracy near Jamaica and Cayman Islands are also not too relevant.

If it turns out to be piracy this would be very disturbing since the advice generally given, as far as I can tell, is to sail well offshore of Nicaragua and stop in at Providencia if desired.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by waterman46

This latest disappearance seems to have occured about 150 miles off the coast of Nicaragua, boat under sail. Not similar at all to previous stories given in this thread. And references to piracy near Jamaica and Cayman Islands are also not too relevant.

If it turns out to be piracy this would be very disturbing since the advice generally given, as far as I can tell, is to sail well offshore of Nicaragua and stop in at Providencia if desired.

The area I am referencing is the Nicaraguan Banks. There have indeed been a number of events in recent years, well offshore from the mainland, on or near the Nicaraguan Banks where vessels underway were boarded (See the CSSN link I posted earlier). The Nica Banks cover a huge area. The location of this vessel, near Serrana Bank, was indeed in the Nicaguan Banks area.

Advise to sail well offshore is outdated as some of the attacks in recent years have occurred well offshore. These attacks have been more organized than attacks in earlier years. Again see CSSN for the incident reports. A screen shot of a map of events since 2015 as reported to CSSN attached.

Link to the interactive maps on CSSN:

https://safetyandsecuritynet.org/zoo...sessment-tool/

[friz]

Sad story. Pray it has a good ending.
Would you run with a darkened ship, at night, in waters like these? An honest question from a sailor who has not sailed these type of waters. I would imagine it would lessen the probability of detection at night. Actually I have sailed these waters but it was with 300' of US Navy steel deck under my feet.

[Cordylia2]

Hello to all, this is very sensitive to me because my crew and I just transited these water in the 3 last days from Providencia , Columbia to Honduras bay islands , we proceeded about 60 Nm west of these epirb locations , at the time unknown to us . I was suprised to see a good amount of boats during our transit all with no AIS signal. About 150Nm NW of the epirb location at night things started getting sketchy we had our first encounter with a suspiciously acting vessel .And than the next night 100 Nm west , a second encounter even more suspicious . I spare all the details because we filed a very detailed report to cssn . We got scared these nights. It is only upon arrival that a family member informed us about SV Salacia . Sharing this information is vital for other cruisers and to possibly resolve the case . It seem that none of the cruisers in the vicinity or local autority in columbia knew about this event almost 2 weeks after , had we know this we would of possibly made different plans ( hindsight is 20/20) , but at least other boats ( witch i know of one that left jamaica to providencia about same time frame as Salacia) that transited the area shortly after could had kept a sharp lookout knowingly . I really hope that this is not the worst case senario , every cruiser who relates needs to share this information as much as possible as time is sensitive.

An other sailboat Sv Nordlys left Providencia about 12h before us with destination of Livingston , Guatemala , there route from what we discussed would of taken them directly over the epirb coordenates . They possibly changed course on the way and were talking of possibly resting somewhere in Hondurian bay islands with there Q flag to rest . But they missed there ssb mf/hf schedule calls with other fellow cruisers from what i understand , i would not consider them overdue considering there final destination but any info or sightings would be appreciated as we are a little bit worry after our encounters.

We hope that every one is ok and sharing this information is highly important

Anyone with more questions or informations can contact me via email Thank you

S.V Cordylia II