Thibaut Vauchel-Camus, winner of the last Transat Jacques-Vabre, rescued drifting migrants while he was ferrying between Morocco and France
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It is a scene that has become usual in the Mediterranean Sea: a boat drifting with, on board, migrants trying to reach Europe on board. Professional skipper Thibaut Vauchel-Camus crossed paths with one of them on Monday, October 7, while he was ferrying with his trimaran between Morocco and France.
The 45-year-old professional skipper, six times French F18 champion and winner of the last Transat Jacques-Vabre, crossed paths with this boat in difficulty while he was transporting his trimaran between Morocco and France. That morning, the sea was calm and the skipper’s trimaran was not moving very quickly. With his binoculars, one of his teammates sees a very small boat barely six meters long on the horizon. On board: sixteen people. Next to the boat, the navigators see a corpse, floating. “We later understood that it was a young man of 22, diabetic, who no longer had insulin. He ended up dying” specifies the skipper. The crew provided water and food to the survivors, who had been drifting for several days.
“They were out of gas. They were only Algerian men who had the ambition to reach Spain.” Thibaut Vauchel-Camus immediately called emergency services in Spain, who sent a lifeboat to bring them back to Andalusia.
For the navigator, a member of the support committee of the NGO SOS Méditerranée, this situation is untenable as many cargo ships have passed by the boat without stopping. “When I see that we, professional sailors, are going to take risks at sea with full conscience, and that in the event of a problem, very impressive means are put in place to recover ushe notes. In the face of that, there are people adrift in front of everyone for whom nothing is happening, it’s revolting.”
A few years ago, Thibaut Vauchel-Camus had already crossed paths with a boat, but this time it was empty.