Missing 75´s.y. Lady Domina

[Bluemansailor]

"I think 72 days is the record in a modern life raft."

NOPE-

Actually the record is 117 days in a life raft by Maurice and Maralyn Bailey in 1973!

[la vida nueva]

Like Tore, I am not going to spend my time responding to remarks unrelated to the search. My advice to Brian was to start raising money for their own private search IF he felt the sailors were in a raft. That was around the time of the Grain de Soleil event. If the LD crew is in a raft they needed help THEN, and that is what those funds could have done. 30 days later, we have lost the drift estimates, and anyone in a raft may have paid the ultimate price. I did say, if the family wanted me to go to Puerto Rico to manage the conflicting info and search for private planes, etc, then expenses (not salary) should be paid. I also clearly told him I was not acting as an attorney, but I could help assemble the facts.

People keep saying there is nothing we can do while Tore and I keep turning up new leads. All we need now is one picture on twitter on facebook by email, with a background somewhere and we can confirm or put to rest several of suppositions. Yes, there is a lot we can do. Also, keeping this story in front of sailors, many who don't speak English, many who don't subscribe to these threads, could play a key role in determining fate. This story has never been publicized in English and I am the only guy who has done anything in Spanish. As Stian Abrahamsan's father said, it is the not knowing that is the most difficult. I will quit posting my things here. You will have to come looking for it if you want the latest news. Let's get back to the core issue of looking for clues.

[la vida nueva]

Good point about the garbage, last night I thought it criticial, today I am less convinced. Thanks for the point on garbage.

[foolishsailor]

It would be a terrible shame if we were forced to close this thread, something being discussed at the moment, as this seems to be a source of information for the families.

We have asked previously for everyone to remember the Be Nice rule and we ask again - specifically lets avoid personal attacks on other posters.

This is a powerful, moving and important thread, it goes on and off the rails but in general there is an important message here.

Please do your best all of you to get along, we dont have to agree or like each other but the boss man says we have to play nice in the sand box.

[Astrid]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

This is one of the issues perhaps that the sea between the Carib and the Azores is full of floating garbage. I think it actually is more polluted with flotsam than the Indian between India and Africa.

One day I sat and counted and counted probably well over 100 sizable items during my trick at helm. Then I stopped counting.

In a way, a watchman may become indifferent to all this stuff after a while and things that could otherwise lead to further inquiry may get overlooked.

b.

Quite a lot of floating debris winds up in the waters to the NW of the Azores. The various currents circulating around the North Atlantic carry and deposit a fair amount of flotsam which winds up in the North Atlantic Gyre from which it rarely escapes, except by sinking to the bottom. While a floating sofa might have come from the missing LD, the chances are much more probable that it was washed out to sea by floods or hurricanes.

[la vida nueva]

That is kind of my issue with the sofa...how long would one float?

[Sand crab]

Originally Posted by la vida nueva

That is kind of my issue with the sofa...how long would one float?

Made out of foam and wood. Along time.

[la vida nueva]

I wonder if Viking got close enough to determine a main color, and I wonder, ask again, for pictures of the interior of Lady Domina.

[Viking66]

Hi Sinbad7 & Tim
I have been checking my log notes from our St Maarten to Azores trip and working backwards.
The floating sofa was covered in a brown velvet-ey upholstery. It was sited on Tuesday 21st May at about 15.30, approx. position N39.10'.00" W29.40'.00" NW of Faial.
We also saw on the Sunday 19th May a large white buoy, but it could have been a 'round' fender? at about 10.15, approx. position N38.47'.00" W35.34'.00"
On the 18th May (Norways National Day) our celebrations were damped by hearing a VHF radio message reminding yachts to keep a lookout for the 'missing yachts'.

[The Garbone]

The Thing with the sofa is that I imagine it was secured to the boat in some way as to not be gear adrift. If it was not secured it still would have to work it's way out of the hull through a hatch or window unless the boat broke up into pieces.

Hopefully these folks are drifting about sleeping on those sofas, eating small portions of food and catching rain water, dewatering the boat with a bucket. If not those couches are on the bottom with the hull and if there lucky the crew is in an old life raft and/or dinghy with a manual watermaker. We may never know.

[la vida nueva]

My understanding from my conversation last night, the sofa was not secured.

[JPA Cate]

FWIW, and it may not be much, the object in the first picture posted by La Vida Nueva appears to be a white bucket, the bale of which has a dark blue handle on it (on the right in the picture). Not much help, sorry.

Keep up the good thoughts, guys....

Ann

[Viking66]

Someone sent me a message (WOW?) could you please resent it. I deleted by mistake..

[whitenail]

don't want to flood this thread so i'll be short
I don't think this is a sofa from LD. last i saw her she only had leather sofas

[bazzer]

Do you guys know how much trash is out there? And you are trying to ID a sofa? Most boats that are sunk usually disappear without a single
Trace.