I sent a message of commiseration to Pete, and this is part of his reply:
"We set sail from Durban on the Thursday towards Madagascar
and by Friday morning we were about 50 miles NE of Durban. After breakfast
together I turned in at 8 o’clock to catch up on my sleep and woke again at 10
o’clock. The sailors worst nightmare, Carly was no longer on board. The wind
was blowing westerly at 10 to 12 knots
with a moderate sea on a clear sunny day and Oryx was sailing at about 5.5
knots under the self-steering. I dropped the sails and tried an all ships mayday
on the VHF, but with no replies and no ships in sight. We were 6.5 miles off
the coast and no mobile phone reception. The Navionics tablet app had been
running our course so I decided to run back along our track under engine to try
and find her. I searched until I arrived back at our pre 0800 position and then
went inshore to call for help by telephone. I contacted the NSRI (National Sea
Rescue Institute) who started to organise an air and sea search. I went back
out and started a zig-zag search back along our track. A couple of hours later
3 helicopters arrived and started a search pattern and shortly afterwards 2
NSRI rescue boats arrived from Durban, I later found out that there was also a
light aircraft searching at a higher altitude. At last light the search was
called off for the night and I went inshore to anchor for the night. The next
morning I went back out to the track and continued the search heading SW and
was shortly joined by the two NSRI boats. They had to return to Durban at noon
because of low fuel while I continued the search until the sun set when I
sailed back to Durban.
The NSRI coordinated the search using unprecedented
resources in a very efficient manner, but we failed to find Carly.
The only small consolation is that in the last few weeks Carly
has spent a lot of time with her daughter Irene and more recently with her son
Dylan, who lives in Durban and especially, much time with her delightful 3 year
old granddaughter Hannah.
We will be holding a memorial service for Carly this
Saturday at the Royal Natal Yacht Club.
Pete"