A call for assistance at 0300hrs – 2017

In 2017 an 80-year-old sailor purchased a 35’ yacht in Melbourne with the dream of being the oldest person to sail single-handed around the world. A call for assistance came at 0300hrs in the morning with a stated location of “just north of Montague Island”. Searching for two hours near Montague yielded no result and radio contact could not be re-established. After completing repairs to his radio, the lone yachtsman made contact again and by using the RDF (radio direction finder), the crew of BG30 could estimate an actual position two hours south of Montague Island, where they finally found the yacht and its skipper and began the 8 hour tow back to Bermagui.