Irish sailor forever indebted to rescuers after failed Golden Globe race attempt
Gregor McGuckin is disappointed he failed in his attempt to become the first Irishman to sail around the world solo and non-stop, but thankful to have been rescued from the remote south western Indian Ocean after things went awry.
The 32-year-old adventurer set off from France in July, taking part in the Golden Globe Race — a 30,000 mile journey in which competitors can only be guided by traditional navigation tools, the sun, moon and the stars.
However on September 21, after 86 days at sea, McGuckin found himself at the mercy of the elements.
"In a bad storm my yacht was capsized and dismantled," he said.
Fellow competitor Abhilash Tomy was also hit by the same storm, with his yacht and his body badly damaged, so McGuckin decided to try to reach him.
"I was uninjured and was planning to sail to safety however Abhilash was not so lucky," McGuckin said.
"He suffered a back injury and was in immediate danger, so I built a jury rig and set a course for his location."
Both men were without fully functioning ships in one of the most remote locations on the planet — around 1,860 nautical miles (3,400 kilometres) west of Perth.
McGuckin said his self-steering and auto pilot had also been damaged in the storm, so it was slow going, but any competitor would have done the same as he did.
"I was the closest boat," he said.
"All I knew is he was injured, I knew I could make way to him somehow so I just did what I could."
In the end a French fishing vessel found Tomy first before later picking up the Irish yachtsman and taking them both to Amsterdam Island for health checks.
'It was an excellent piece of seamanship'
"He actually got within a couple of nautical miles of Tomy's position," Alan Lloyd from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said of McGukin's rescue attempt.
"It was an excellent piece of seamanship for him to proceed to Tomy and provide assistance."
On Monday McGukin arrived on Garden Island south of Perth onboard HMAS Ballarat where he said he would be forever indebted to all of those who helped in the rescue mission.
He said he last saw Tomy — who is now on his way back to India — a couple of days ago.
"He's okay, doing well laughing and joking, it's just going to take him a little while to recover," McGukin said.
"He's obviously still a bit sore and you know he didn't eat in a few days so he's weak … but he'll be fine."
It is only the second time the Golden Globe Race has taken place and more people have been in space than have successfully completed the feat of sailing solo and non-stop around the world.
The first event, in 1968 was marred by tragedies and saw just one of the nine competitors cross the finish line.
About 18 competitors set out in July for this year's race, which takes up to nine months to complete, but according to the event's website, only eight remain in the competition.
Former Navy officer Mark Sinclair, from Adelaide, is one of those, with fellow Australian, Perth firefighter Kevin Farebrother, retiring from the competition citing personal reasons.
According to his website, Tomy became the first Indian to circumnavigate the globe when he achieved the feat in 2013 and was lying third in the Golden Globe before the storm hit.
McGukin, whose partner Barbara McNally met him in Perth, said while he had not ruled out another attempt at achieving his goal his priority right now was family.
"They were pretty rattled so I have to let them know I'm not a weirdo after spending 80-odd days at sea by myself," he said.
"There's a lot of disappointment but at the end of the day I was lucky I didn't get injured so for that I'm thankful.
"Getting to the start of this race was such a big challenge I've already got a huge sense of achievement from that.
"I was doing quite well when all this happened so that's a bit of a disappointment but life goes on."
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ABC .net
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