Mystery of Pogo 50 “ghost” stranded in Cefalù solved

Last Dec. 7, a 15-meter sailboat in good condition but without a crew ran aground on the beach in Cefalù, Sicily. After an on-board inspection and a series of investigations, the Coast Guard identified the boat involved in an accident in Sardinia in November.

Boat stranded in Cefalù, mystery solved

When a modern sailboat in good condition but with no one on board ends up on the beach, immediately one fears the worst. Why did it end up there? And what happened to the crew? These are questions that immediately spring to mind, and the best thing to do is to raise the alarm. That’s what some residents of the seaside town of Cefalù, Sicily, did on Dec. 7, when in the early hours of the day they spotted a sailboat drifting a few dozen meters from the coast, before ending up stranded on a beach dragged by the waves at the Lido Poseidon. In the previous days, in fact, the entire region had been hit by bad weather with rain and strong winds, and the first thought of the witnesses was that an accident of some kind had happened on board, forcing the crew to abandon the cabin cruiser. So they immediately raised the alarm by alerting the Termini Imerese Coast Guard. Perhaps those sailors were still in danger, perhaps still adrift on a life raft.

Pogo 50: Crew rescued in the waters off Arbatax

Mystery of the stranded boat solved. After a thorough on-board inspection and a series of investigations, Coast Guard men solved the mystery. The boat in question, a 50-foot flagged Pogo, had actually been involved in an accident last Nov. 21, but not in Sicilian waters, but in Sardinia. The whole thing happened about 30 miles southeast of the port of Arbatax.

Aboard the cabin cruiser was a crew of three sailors, all of French nationality. Basically during the night due to bad weather they had experienced sail failure and had been forced to turn on the engine in order to continue sailing safely and reach land. Due to the particular adverse weather conditions, however, the boat would quickly consume all available fuel, leaving the crew without steering the unit and in the dangerous situation: drifting with rough seas and poor visibility.

Good news for the owner of the Pogo 50.

The three men then launched the mayday at 2 a.m., a distress call that was intercepted by the Arbatax Coast Guard, which ordered the intervention of patrol boat CP 811. Given the worsening weather conditions with very rough seas and wind gusts up to 30 knots, the boaters once reached were transshipped to the patrol boat and the Pogo 50 was left adrift. For the stranded sailboat, danger was immediately formalized by requesting the issuance of an Urgent Notice to Mariners. Pending the tracing of the owner, the boat was secured: it will be transferred to a storage facility and then returned to the owner.