Container vessel saves yacht in distress

It was a question of being in the right place at the right time for the Ital Mattina which last week came to the rescue of the yacht ‘After You’ while sailing in the South Atlantic en-route From Santos to Cape Town. The container vessel, which belongs to Italia Maritima Spa – an affiliate company of the Evergreen Group – picked up a radio message from the Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre on March 9, informing them that a yacht was in distress. “After heeding the message, the vessel swiftly proceeded to the position of the yacht,” said Evergreen Agency’s Durban-based operations manager Sanjay Bunvary, “where it was discovered that the yacht was out of diesel and critically short of food.” The master of the Ital Mattina transferred eight 25-litre drums of diesel fuel and a container of food to the yacht, and ascertained that she was now in sufficient trim to reach Cape Town. The vessel arrived in Durban on March 13, with the yacht due to arrive in Cape Town about four days later.