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Video of family’s dramatic Atlantic rescue from Dove II is released
- Katy Stickland
The crew of the Tilly Mint, who answered a mayday call from the Coombes family on board Dove II, have released a video of the mid-Atlantic rescue
The crew of the Tilly Mint help rescue the Coombes family
25 January 2017
It was suppose to be a trip of a lifetime for the Coombes family from Newquay, Cornwall.
Instead, they were forced to abandon their yacht, Dove II, just weeks into their journey after rudder problems and heavy weather in the mid-Atlantic.
Read an account of the family’s ordeal in their own words below
Now a video of the rescue of James and Fran Coombes, their children, nine-year-old Heath and Isla, aged seven, along with family friend Tony White, has been released by those who saved them.
The British crew of the Discovery 67, Tilly Mint answered the Coombes’ Mayday call after days at sea with no rudder and no steering.
Fran, her two children and Tony White used Dove II’s life raft to transfer to Tilly Mint.
James was forced to abandon just moments later when the main sail sheet and the genoa sheet snapped and the ropes became wrapped around the prop.
The Coombes family is still appealing for help in tracing Dove II, and are offering a $10,000 reward for the safe recovery of the yacht and their possessions.
Dove II was last seen 460 nautical miles due east of Antigua in the Caribbean.
The family are currently recovering from their ordeal in St Martin.
12 January 2017
The dreams of the Coombes family were shattered on 21 December 2016 when following rudder failure, they were left with no option but to abandon their yacht, Dove II during heavy weather in the mid-Atlantic.
James and Fran Coombes and their children, nine-year-old Heath and Isla, aged seven, were just beginning their journey around the world when disaster struck.
Now the family, who are from Newquay, Cornwall, are offering a $10,000 reward for the safe recovery of the yacht and their possessions.
The Coombes last saw Dove II 460 nautical miles due east of Antigua in the Caribbean, and believe the yacht is “drifting towards the islands”.
They were on passage from Portugal to Barbados with a family friend, 71-year-old Tony White, when their rudder disintegrated and they were left with no steering.
Fran Coombes and her two children. Credit: Go Fund Me
With no way to control the 50-foot boat, they spent three days being punished by four to six metre waves while trying to jury rig an emergency rudder.
Describing the ordeal on her blog, Fran Coombes wrote: “This was not a good situation to be in, in fact it was everything I feared happening to us. The good news at this point, because when it goes wrong you’ve got to find some good, were that because the stock was still in place we weren’t taking on water, also the children though aware of what had happened were unconcerned and quickly fell asleep.”
“I was in a very dark place, we were side on (broad side) to the wind, which becomes very loud and very there when your not going with it but also to the swell, so we were rolling badly with the boat being knocked down with each set that came through, it was terrifying…”
The family contacted Falmouth Coastguard who coordinated with Fort de France in Martinique.
Missing sailor made his own way home after falling overboard
Within four hours, the 190-metre bulk carrier cargo ship, Newseas Jade, arrived on the scene and attempted to rescue the family.
But despite five attempts, the ship was unable to come alongside in the 30-knot winds.
“Newseas Jade prepared to come alongside, now it’s 2 in the morning, there is no moon, it’s basically pitch black and as they approached we realised the size of the vessel and what we were about to attempt. Newseas Jade is bulk carrier cargo ship, she is 190 meters long and over 30 metres wide, she is massive and in the dark, in a rolly sizeable sea, with no control of your own 16 metre boat to have this monster loom up and over you well it is truly scary,” recalled Fran Coombes.
“I was scared, Jim was scared, the kids just lost it and were screaming at us to make it go away. They then started firing ropes at us this was like having fireworks shot at you, James got on the engine and used the bow thrusters to try and manoeuvre us away from the ship, we were not going to grab those lines, and there was no way we were going to come alongside, we were rolling badly, but even the 190 metre ship was rolling as she was now broadside to the waves, we would be crushed and undoubtedly all end up in the sea,” she wrote.
The family were forced to abandon Dove II in the mid Atlantic. Credit: James Coombes/Facebook
Newsea Jade stayed with Dove II for 60 hours before another ship, Asia of Pearl, arrived to assist.
Again, the conditions meant that plans to fire lines to Dove II for a boat to boat transfer had to be abandoned.
Finally a Discovery 67 yacht, Tilly Mint responded to the Coombes’ plight.
Fran, Heath, Isla and Tony abandoned into a life raft leaving James on board Dove II.
“This one was a six man raft, it was tiny and you feel incredibly exposed and open to the elements, it’s sitting on a piece of plastic floating over 4000ft of sea? I got on my knees and James basically threw me Heath, he was so brave, I hadn’t witnessed him and James’s goodbye but he just sat where I told him, didn’t scream, didn’t cry, he just said “Mummy, I don’t like this”,” wrote Fran,
“Isla came down next and again she landed in my arms in the raft, she was very scared but she sat down next to Heath. I was saying things like “Its like a paddling pool!” But as I looked at their faces they were just scared and in the end I just said repeatedly “You’re fine, we’re going to be ok”
“Tony appeared in the raft and James cut us free, we were off the boat, we were in a life raft in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.”
Be Good Too, abandoned in 2004 off the US coast, washed up in Scotland
The crew of the Tilly Mint picked up the life raft’s line and Tony, Fran and her two children were transferred on board.
But that wasn’t the end of the family’s ordeal.
Just moments later the main sail sheet and the genoa sheet snapped on Dove II and the ropes became wrapped around the prop leaving James no options but to call for help.
“The boom was swinging dangerously around the cockpit, he put in a call to us, he was done, could we go back for him? YES! I looked at the captain, could we? He quickly turned the yacht round and we headed back for Jim, we were on our way,” wrote Fran.
“Bless him, he was a broken man, he was sat in the cockpit, the main sail was a mess where the lazy jacks were gone, the boom was swinging back and forth and there were ropes everywhere.”
“It was like the boat had totally rejected him but in a way it was saving him. He and the crew completed the transfer very quickly and that was it, we were rescued, all of us.”
The family are now safely in St Martin in the Caribbean trying to decide their next step.
Friends have launched a go find me appeal to raise £10,000 for the Coombes to help them rebuild their lives.
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The yacht Dove II was equipped with a satellite telephone which they used to contact the UK Coastguard in Falmouth, and the Coastguard in Martinique. Skipper James battled 18ft seas and gales for three days and nights in an attempt to rig a temporary rudder, setting out drogues and fighting the elements before he made the decision to abandon his vessel and accept rescue from nearby vessels. Merchant ships Newseas Jade and Asia Pearl attended and attempted rescue, before the Discovery 67 yacht Tilly Mint of Cowes arrived and successfully rescued the stricken family. Dove II was in position 16° 31.92’N / 052°38.87’W on 21 December 2016 when it was abandoned at 1200 hours UTC.
In the family’s blog, Fran described the terror of ‘everything I feared happening to us’ when: ‘At 6.30 on the 15th day of our crossing our rudder completely disintegrated and we were left with no steering.’
Read the family's blog.
She praised Falmouth Coastguard, saying: ‘I spoke to these guys a lot over the next few days and they were always really calming, really understanding and a great comfort.’
Read the full story.
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Caribbean, BVIs: Search for Cruising Family’s Abandoned Yacht
On December 21st, 2016, cruising yacht “Dove II”, owned and loved by the Coombes family from the UK, had to be abandoned near the end of her TransAtlantic from the Canaries with rudder failure close to Barbados. The family has been searching for their home ever since. The cruising community is asked to be on the lookout for the drifting Dove II in the Leeward Islands, Caribbean Sea.
Published 8 years ago, updated 6 years ago
Latest drift analysis from Chris Parker:
Based on an assumption that nothing on board has changed since the abandonment, calculations for the approximate location of Dove II tomorrow (January 18, 2017) near 19-12N/64-20W (about 30 miles North of the island of Anegada in the BVI).
Yacht Details:
Name : Dove II (UK flag)
Type : Hanse 531 (sloop)
Colour : Light grey hull, red anti foul, teak deck, white topsides
Characteristics : Burgandy/Maroon mainsail cover, spray hood, bimini (with a white patch in the middle) and genoa UV strip (Genoa is furled).
Surfboards in whiteboard bags on the port and stbd quarter’s, look like dodgers.
2x dive cylinders on the port quarter, 1 yellow 1 white.
White mainsail up with 2 reefs in, the main sheet snapped so the boom will be flapping around.
Abandoned at Position: 16 31.92 N / 052 38.87 W
Date : December 21st, 2016 at 1200 hours UTC.
Report – as told by owner and skipper, James Coombes:
On the 4th of December, 2016, we set off from Tenerife in our 53-foot yacht with a crew of 5. Myself, my wife, our 2 children aged 7 & 9 and my stepfather in law.
Like most yachts crossing last year, we struggled the first week, with light winds down to 20 30. The second week the trades blew a steady 20-30 knots which meant we made up for the time lost from the first week. Fifteen days into the crossing and all was looking good for arrival in Barbados on the eve of the 21st – giving us a few days to prepare for Christmas, which the kids were super-excited about. We also had friends staying in Barbados who’s children couldn’t wait for us to arrive so we could all go surfing on Christmas Day together.
At 1830 on December 19th we were cruising along at 8-12 knots with a poled out Genoa when we heard a horrible crunching sound. Suddenly the boat slewed around 90 degrees with the autohelm alarm sounding. My initial thoughts were that the autopilot had disconnected from the rudder post, but when I tried turning the wheel and not getting any response, my heart sank as I thought I’d lost the actual rudder. We quickly furled in the Genoa, then I donned my dive mask and jumped off the stern with a dive torch to take a look. I took one look under the stern and saw that the rudder post and framework were still intact but the actual grp had completely delaminated and had torn off. Nightmare!!
So now we were broad-side on to a 3-5 meter swell and 30 knots of wind – not good. Over the next 6 hours, we made many attempts at trying to head back downwind. I made a temporary rudder with the spinnaker pole and timber planks. With the wind and the swell nothing worked. We tried to point into the wind to make it more comfortable, but the boat would only sit 90 degrees to the wind and swell.
So – rolling badly and very close to numerous knock-downs, my wife was feeling the situation wasn’t safe enough for the kids and she wanted to get them off the boat. We called Falmouth Coastguard on the sat phone for assistance.
Help arrives
In the early hours, we had a 190m cargo vessel on the scene to assist. They wanted to give us a Lee and throw lines down then pull us alongside. Even on their Lee side with the swell and them rolling made the situation far too dangerous to attempt. I could see it all going horribly wrong, and every time they came around to fire lines at us, I had to use my engine to get out of their way. The language barrier between the cargo ship captain and myself made it difficult to communicate clearly. He was trying his hardest to get close and help, but all I was thinking was if we’re alongside and he rolls on us, or my spreaders collided with his hull, it would all end disastrously.
The coastguard then re-routed another cargo vessel to come and assist. When it was daylight and we were waiting for them to arrive, I pulled down the stainless pole that supports our radar dome on the stern and bolted 2 floorboards – which I had glued and screwed together – to the pole to make another temporary rudder. We couldn’t find a way of securely fixing it to the transom though and with the swell bouncing us around it just wouldn’t work properly. When the second cargo vessel arrived later in the morning it turned out to be 180m, so we went through exactly the same scenario as we had before. This was meant to be an easier transfer, but the dangers were exactly the same.
So after another stressful day of having a 180m cargo vessel bearing down on us and firing lines at us, all attempts failing, we were no closer to disembarking my now, very fraught, crew. The kids were very seasick after 24 hours of horrific rolling and sliding sideways down waves. None of us had slept or eaten properly.
At the end of day 2, the coastguard informed us that another sailing vessel was within 80nm of our position and they were turning around to come to our assistance.
My plan all along was to safely disembark my wife, kids, and father in law. I was going to stay on board and try and drift in on the boat nearer to land then try and sort a tow out.
Whilst we were awaiting the arrival of the rescue yacht, the 2 cargo vessels stayed close by us to keep a safe eye on us. I’m very grateful for their patience.
So on the 3rd night, the yacht arrived. We all felt that attempting the transfer in the dark wouldn’t be a good idea, so we waited for sunrise.
After another very uncomfortable night, the weather was forecast to ease off in the morning. As the sun rose the wind and the swell was still present with winds gusting to 28knts and a 2-4 m swell. Launching the other yacht’s dinghy was out of the question, the only safe way we saw was to send my family across in a life raft.
They all took a rucksack each then I loaded them up in the life raft and cast them off for the other yacht to pick them up. A very emotional moment I can tell you.
Alone on the boat
So now alone on the boat I tried everything to get her to point downwind. With going full astern trying for the prop walk to turn me before pulling the sails up and trying to goose-wing downwind. I thought if I could just get going downwind then try and steer with the drouges I had out of the stern, all would be ok. My god I tried everything and in the end the main sheet snapped, one of the Genoa sheets snapped and got caught in the prop. Everything I tried, she just kept spinning back and sitting broadside on.
With my family now safely onboard the other yacht, they sat close-by as I kept trying.
I had now spent 60 sleepless hours trying everything I could and I could envisage something really bad happening to me if I was left alone out there. With the boom now swinging around as I rode over the swells and the wind showing no sign of easing off, I made the hardest decision of my life and decided to abandon and join my family.
Yacht abandoned
I left the drouges trailing from the stern, I also left the engine running on tick over to power the batteries to keep the AIS switched on. Navigation lights were not left on. The main was still up.
Leaving my boat was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. All the years of planning for this trip, all the personal belongings we had to leave on board, all the children’s Christmas presents. It breaks my heart just writing this. I am just hoping she’s still afloat or else it’ll all be lost forever.
The crew of the yacht that rescued us were amazing, we were really looked after and brought safely to Martinique.
The search for Dove II
So my intention now is to try and recover my yacht, bring it back in for repair and carry on with our dream trip. After all of our hard work the past few years and the preparation, I really don’t want us to have to go home.
James has been in contact with Glenn Tuttle, net manager of the SSCA HF radio service ‘KPK’, who in partnership with the Caribbean Safety & Security Net is helping alert the cruising community.
The following is action the SSCA’s HF Radio Service “KPK” took on James’ behalf and request:
KPK contacted Orbcomm, Inc. ORBCOMM is a Virginia based global market leader in Satellite AIS (Automatic Identification System)—a vessel tracking system used on ships and by vessel traffic services for identification and location information. Satellite AIS provides a means to track the location of vessels in the most remote areas of the world, especially over open oceans and beyond the reach of terrestrial-based AIS systems. Orbcomm provided KPK with six position reports before and after he abandoned the vessel.
KPK also contacted well-known weather router Chris Parker of the Marine Weather Center (https://www.mwxc.com/ ) for his help creating a drift analysis to predict where the vessel is headed. The Marine Weather Center and, chief forecaster Chris Parker provide vessel-specific routing advice for cruisers worldwide. Chris and the SSCA have enjoyed a long relationship, and the SSCA has recognized Chris for the valuable contributions he has made to the cruising community.
Chris worked with the AIS data provided by Orbcomm, Inc., and with historical weather data, was able to make some predictions as to the probable path the Dove II will take.
The following is Chris Parker’s drift analysis as of January 17, 2017:
Based on an assumption that nothing onboard changed since abandonment, I calculated the approximate location of Dove II tomorrow (January 18, 2017) near 19-12N/64-20W (about 30mi N of the island of Anegada in the BVI).
I know you suspect the drogue chaffed through, but without knowing when this might have happened, there is no way to account for it in the drift analysis. Also, there is no way of knowing what direction the vessel would drift without the drogue (one might assume she would drift downwind, but that’s not necessarily true – the keel would still provide lift against the press of wind on the hull and partially hoisted sails). There’s also no way of knowing whether there is currently more or less of a sail plan erected than when you abandoned.
So with all that uncertainty, the best I can do is assume nothing changed on the vessel since abandonment.
In my calculations, I accounted for wind strength, wind direction, and the strength/direction of sea surface currents.
I estimate Dove II has drifted 630 miles, on a bearing of 282T in the 18 days (through 12utc Wed18) since the last AIS location (12utc December 31). That’s about 35mi/day, or about 1.46k speed.
KPK has provided all the pertinent information to the U.S. Coast Guard and asked they consider issuing an AMVER alert for the vessel as a hazard to navigation.
If you spot Dove II
Contact MRCC Martinique (Tel: +596 596 70 92 92 E-mail: [email protected]) or the local coastguard.
James Coombes is offering a $10,000 reward for the safe recovery of the S/V DOVE II. James may be contacted directly at [email protected] .
There is a video on YouTube from SY Tilly Mint, the crew that rescued the family:
https://youtu.be/e8bfj2Mx65k
Read and Post Related Comments
Related to following destinations: Anguilla , Antigua & Barbuda , Bahamas , Barbados , Bermuda , British Virgin Islands , Cuba , Dominica , Dominican Republic , Grenada , Haiti , Martinique , Montserrat , Puerto Rico , Saba , Sint Maarten , St. Barts , St. Kitts & Nevis , St. Lucia , St. Martin , St. Vincent & the Grenadines , Statia , Trinidad & Tobago , US Virgin Islands
Related to the following Cruising Resources: Safety and Medical
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IMAGES
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COMMENTS
The Coombes last saw Dove II 460 nautical miles due east of Antigua in the Caribbean, and believe the yacht is “drifting towards the …
Merchant ships Newseas Jade and Asia Pearl attended and attempted rescue, before the Discovery 67 yacht Tilly Mint of Cowes arrived …
Three days from landfall in Barbados, a family adventure turned into a 60-hour ordeal, when the rudder came off Hanse 531 Dove II. A couple, …
“Keep a lookout for the sailing vessel Dove II,” that’s what mariners in the Eastern Caribbean were instructed to do. The rough story I received was that a family had been forced …
It’s a struggle at times to get through this nearly 30-minute long homemade documentary of the recent rescue of the Dove II, but real footage of boats in trouble is rare and …
Merchant ships Newseas Jade and Asia Pearl attended and attempted rescue, before the Discovery 67 yacht Tilly Mint of Cowes arrived and successfully rescued the stricken family. …
On December 21st, 2016, cruising yacht “Dove II”, owned and loved by the Coombes family from the UK, had to be abandoned near the end of her TransAtlantic from the Canaries with rudder …
This is a blog for Dove 2 yacht which was abandoned at sea as the rudder was lost, Dove 2 abandoned at sea If you can help please do so.
I estimate Dove II has drifted 630 miles, on a bearing of 282T in the 18 days (through 12utc Wed18) since the last AIS location (12utc December 31). That's about 35mi/day, or about 1.46k …