Man marooned at sea for five days
68-year-old Golan Heights resident tried sailing alone to Israel from England. After several technical malfunctions he was left completely stranded 10 miles from Israel and had to be towed to shore by the marine patrol unit.
After marine police towed him to land, he told Ynet: "I didn't get much sleep; just an hour or two here and there. I was really anxious to make it to land.
"I was marooned ten miles from Israel's beach. I asked passing ships to let my family know I'm okay."
A series of malfunctions at sea caused the Golan Heights resident to be stuck at sea. The last malfunction took place when the yacht's engine died 16 km from the shore, and he had spent the last five days trying to establish contact with someone who could take him home.
The coastal district's marine police patrol unit found the man and towed him to the port of Haifa. The sailor, a physician who's a father of three, is still trying to recover from the cruise gone wrong.
"I flew to England and planned on sailing to Israel by myself. I stopped in Spain and planned on going through Gibraltar. It took me twice as much time as I thought it would. Winds were either in the opposite direction or very weak and the past three weeks, sailing south of Malta, were exceedingly difficult," he recounted.
"I suffered from a lack of sleep. I woke up every 20 minutes looking for passing ships. Five days ago, when I was getting closer to Israel, my steering system malfunctioned and then, just ten miles from shore, the engine completely died," he added.
"There was no wind to push me forward and I asked to be towed. I had a radio and asked passing ships to notify my family I was okay. They were naturally very concerned, and I was really anxious to get ashore. They met me at the beach and took me home."
Superintendent Aryeh Dahan of the marine patrol unit said, "The man left England on a friend's yacht and stopped in Spain to procure supplies for a trip to Greece for him and two additional friends—who ended up not joining him."
"During this trip his engine and sails malfunctioned, and he was marooned at sea," Dahan added. "As soon as he reached Israel's maritime border, the coastal district marine patrol received a report from the Navy about his yacht. Marine patrol went out to find the vessel with all haste and found it, and the person aboard—who was in dire mental straits."
"When he saw us, he was able to smile again, but remained groggy. He feared for his life and at some point ran out of supplies. We took him to our base personally and let him shower and eat. While we cared for him we contacted his family who picked him up, safe and sound," he concluded.
The marine patrol made judicious use of this extraction to raise awareness to the dangers of the sea—facing both sailors and swimmers—and published video clips with recommendations and instructions on, among other things, places where swimming is allowed and how to maintain boat safety at sea.
Police has documented some of the incidents it was forced to deal with recently to raise awareness among the general public—and save some lives. Various extractions of civilians in different circumstances were documented, for example, to illustrate how one should, or shouldn't, behave.
MDA data shows that since the beginning of 2017, 15 people have drowned in Israel with two additional people gravely injured. In addition, 12 people suffered serious injures, 14 medium ones and 69 minor injuries.
