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British sailor feared missing at sea tells UK coastguard he is 'safe and well'

British solo yachtsman Robin Davie sailing aboard his Rustler 36 yacht C'EST La VIE  - PPL Photo Agency
British solo yachtsman Robin Davie sailing aboard his Rustler 36 yacht C'EST La VIE - PPL Photo Agency

A British sailor feared to be missing at sea for six days has radioed the UK coastguard to say he is "safe and well."

Robin Davie, 67, was expected back at his home port of Falmouth in Cornwall on Tuesday having set off on a 300-mile journey from Les Sables d'Olonne in western France last Saturday.

The Coastguard said: "The skipper of the yacht 'C'est la Vie' has just reported that he has heard the broadcast action being made by HM Coastguard and that he is safe and well 25 miles south west of the Isles of Scilly."

C'est La Vie is now due to arrive into Falmouth on Sunday afternoon.

Coastguard Controller Dai Jones said: "We were concerned for the skipper's safety and so we're really pleased that he has been in contact to tell us that he is safe and well.

"Being able to broadcast continuously can pay dividends and in this case it really helped us to locate him.

"We had worked out that the sailor could be somewhere around the Isles of Scilly by considering the weather conditions and what passage he would have been likely to take. It really was a case of putting ourselves in the skipper's shoes."

Robin Davie’s family alerted the coastguard on Wednesday after he told his brother Rick he would arrive in Falmouth, his hometown, on Tuesday.

The UK coastguard said no distress signal had been received but it had issued an all-ships alert asking vessels to look out for his yacht.

Robin Davie on board his yacht, C'est la Vie - Credit: Barry Pickthall/PPL Photo Agency
Robin Davie is now expected back in Falmouth on Sunday Credit: Barry Pickthall/PPL Photo Agency

Mr Davie, who spent 20 years in the Merchant Navy, has circumnavigated the globe solo three times and was preparing to attempt the feat without stopping in 2022. Friends described his disappearance as a “total mystery”.

Barry Pickthall, a yachting journalist who has known Mr Davie since 1990, said: “We are all gobsmacked, we just do not understand it. It has been so mild and calm and there is hardly any wind, so he has had calm seas the whole way.

“We organised an all-ships alert and nothing has been turned up and yet this is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. It’s a total mystery.”

Mr Davie had been in Les Sables d’Olonne fixing a new mast and rigging to his Rustler 36 yacht, which he bought in 2017. He had hoped to take part in last year’s Golden Globe Race to sail around the world solo without stopping but had not managed to fix his yacht in time.

Mr Pickthall said as Mr Davie had just fitted a new mast, the C’est la Vie did not have an aerial when he set sail seven days ago, which cut the range of the on-board radio from around 30 miles to just seven. He added: “However he has a life raft on board with an emergency radio and a GPS set, so we don’t understand.

“It is all conjecture: Has he hurt himself? Has he fallen overboard? Has he hit a ship and the ship hasn’t noticed?”

Mr Davie has overcome dangerous situations before at sea. When he was attempting his second round-the-world voyage in the Nineties he lost the mast on his yacht while sailing 2,000 miles out in the Southern Ocean, around the continent of Antarctica.

Yet he managed to construct a jury rig – made with only the tools and materials on board – and navigated his boat to the Falkland Islands to make more permanent repairs.

Yesterday, UK and French Coastguard made broadcasts via satellite, Navtex and VHF throughout the day.