NSRI accepts donation in memory of Lesley Donnelly

TERRY HUTSON A COLLECTION in memory of former ship’s agent Leslie Donnelly, who died when her yacht sank during a rescue operation in the South Atlantic Ocean in October last year, raised over R13 000 and has been donated to the National Sea Rescue Institute. The money was raised during a memorial service in Durban and is to be used to purchase ‘anything useful’ by the NSRI and inscribed with the message ‘In loving memory of Leslie Donnelly’. Donnelly, who worked in Durban as a ship’s agent for many years and was well-known among the maritime community, drowned after her yacht Nauti-Gal developed problems and sank in heavy seas. A fellow yachtsman, Mark Koen, also drowned but the third person on board Mike Echalaz was rescued by the car carrier Tristan. Donnelly and Echalaz left Durban on Nauti-Gal intending to sail to the Caribbean. In Cape Town Koen joined them as crew for the next and fateful leg.