SHIPWRECKS AT END OF THE WORLD RECOVERY FUND

"The Lighthouse at the End of the World", Work of Jules Verne may have been among your readings...

It is a few hundred meters from this famous lighthouse that our 7 days dramatic adventure started !

The lighthouse at the end of the world is located in Argentina, on the Island of the States, a few miles from the famous and feared Cape Horn. It was restored by a group of French enthusiasts and its faithful reproduction was also built in La Rochelle.

After sailing to the South Atlantic, several coincidences persisted in stranding our sailboat Jiujiu on one of the most hostile islands in Argentina: Isla de los Estados!

Arrived from the Malvinas Islands on July 28 in the morning with an engine failure en route, we anchored in the bay of San Juan de Salvamento, the easternmost bay of the island, only entering under small headsail to be easily manoeuvrable. San Juan de Salvamento is a narrow and deep fjord with high mountains on all sides and totally protected from all wind directions.

As there was almost no wind between the high mountains, it took us about two hours to cover 1.5 nautical miles, then the anchorage went smoothly when we reached 15/16 meters of water depth…

For safety, we established a 12mm long chain, and established a position drift alarm on our GPS cartographer. After two days of well-earned rest following our crossing, the anchor seemed stabilized, but on July 31, a little before 11 p.m., the drift alarm went off following the unhooking of the anchor in bottom grass. Quickly we found ourselves too close to the coast.. . The engine being broken down since navigation crossing, it then proved impossible to re-anchor and a quick check with the depth sounder revealed a water depth that had greatly decreased...

The coast of this bay is surrounded with rocks of various sizes and soon the boat was then thrown by the rising tide, starboard on shore. Shortly after, from the starboard side we heard a strong impact, and simultaneously the starboard fuel tank bolted on the structure, lifted the saloon floor several inches.

The Argentina Prefectura maritima was immediately notified via satellite e-mail by an emergency call "PAN PAN" for towing assistance, but they could not ensure an immediate intervention because they were facing a strong weather alert in their area, it was then impossible for them to come to us immediately...

With high tide we immediately pulled the boat on the anchor and with help of the Genoa front sail and a light wind about 10 knots, we could get boat forward and re-anchor in 3 meters of water securing the boat with two long shore lines aft tied to some rocks and trees.

However, on 2nd of August, wind coming from North East started in morning and immediately after lunch time, anchor started to drift again with Genoa being now useless to pull the boat forward.

With North East wind, stream came in the bay, pulling bow of the boat on Port side and afternoon around 14:30 waves grounded vessel on Port side with stern of the boat hitting rocks, damaging rudder and propeller skeg.

At low tide, taking advantage of the calm, we installed with the inflatable dinghy an additional anchor amidship on the starboard side of the boat to try to get away from the most aggressive rocks during high tide. Then three long lines to keep the boat from drifting out of control now that the rudder below was in pieces...

We were in constant contact with the Prefectura Naval every 4/5 hours, waiting for an intervention. It began to snow seriously, 15, then 20 cm accumulated on the deck of the boat...

On August 3, 2023, 10:26 p.m., the Prefectura Maritima Argentina informed us by their email that the assistance boat "ARA INDOMITA" could only join us on Saturday August 5 in view of the improvement in the weather conditions for their area: Then we needed to hold on, to resist !

In the evening we anxiously discovered unknown origin water in the bottoms, despite an immediate verification of all inlet/outlet and valves...

Further on, with a new report of strong winds in their area, the Prefectura maritima sent a message indicating that the rescue vessel could further delay the intervention until August 7...

For those 7 days of waiting, to the rhythm of the high and low tides, we floated in a few meters of water, then we crashed again on the rocks, each shock reaching us deep in our guts, living helplessly the agony of our boat...

On August 7 around 2:00 p.m., the Armada vessel "ARA INDOMITA" finally arrived, sending two zodiacs in our direction. After a quick medical checkup, we boarded one of the Zodiacs

IT WAS ALL OVER: As the zodiacs take us, we look in the direction of Jiujiu, our boat, companion of 7 years of navigation, leaving her alone at the bottom of the bay, a strong feeling of abandonment twists our stomachs, the tears come to our eyes...

Bye Jiujiu, you have been a great sailboat and you protected us in those last days of waiting until the end! We will never forget you!

Love, Christian, Sudy and little Ulisse

Thanks :

We would like to wholeheartedly thank the Argentine Armada for their intervention and their welcome onboard, especially the Commander of the frigate Ara Indomita and his crew of 37 members who had to wait in disastrous weather conditions to intervene, forcing them to postpone the rescue by several days.

Thank you for reading and participating to this fundraising !

This misadventure cost us our faithful sailboat, it will be hard to bounce back. You can also help us by sharing this misadventure with your friends, and dont forget even a bad experience : NEVER GIVE UP !

UPDATE on May 2024

Most of you probably wonder about what happened to our boat JIUJIU that was left in San Juan de Salvamento bay on the Island?

After few months, a team of divers from Argentine Army was delegated to the location, to check upon the hull state and decide two alternatives : Tow the boat to deep water and sink it ( it would be then one of hundred boats that sank in the area of Le Maire straits since many years) , or two the boat if possible to the Naval base in Ushuaia !

The Argentine Navy divers team did it, and therefore have been towing JIUJIU after making an onsite salvage. The trip was quite bumpy but ARA Indomita could manage to tow JIUJIU at low speed and reach Ushuaia.

There JIUJIU will be restored by Armada Argentina to serve in Navy as sailing school for Army newcomers.

We are particularly proud and happy that JIUJIU will begin a new life, despite that we loose her in this accident!

Insurance was of no help to us as they refuted the claim on the base of their ‘general conditions’…

But we have a leitmotiv : Never Give Up !