February 17th 2004 This morning
Jean-Marie organized an overflight of the zone to locate Emmanuel before
his arrival to Guadeloupe. He was accompanied by a cameraman from RFO.
Arielle Cassim, marine weather specialist on RFI,
addressed a message to the attention of Emmanuel (who listens to it on
his radio), so that he could be contacted on VHF in a schedule specified
by Jean-Marie Thélier. Thanks again to Arielle and RFI for broadcasting.
Another Grand Merci to sympathetic pilot who
dedicated his flight hours locate the boat.
Emmanuel and his red Ladybird were thus located at
09:34 this morning (Guadeloupe time). His position was:
16° 32/N - 59° 36/W
A VHF contact was established between the rower and
Jean-Marie Thélier during approximately 1/4 of hour. All goes well for
Emmanuel.
A fishing vessel from Pointe à Pitre named "HAICHI",
also contacted by VHF was dispatched to meet the rower.
Emmanuel plans to cross the finish line by the end of
the day Wednesday February 18th.
Today, Sunday February 15th
2004, after 9 days
of no contact, Emmanuel was located by an English boat "Velsheda", which
supplied him with water and a little food. Emmanuel thus have more
important electric breakdown if he needed water, and not only his
Iridium phone was out of order. Unfortunately we have no more
information for the moment.
His position transmited by the CROSS ANTILLES GUYANNE at 11:36 GMT, that
is to say 07:36 local, was 220 miles to the Nord/East of La Desirade.
Coordinates: 16° 57.07/N -
57° 21.01/W
So Jean-Marie THELIER and his team are expecting
Emmanuel's arrival by Wednesday or next Thursday, they're preparing to
dispatch a plane to locate the boat Monday or Tuesday, to go then
to meet Emmanuel and to accompany him in his last miles.
It will be difficult enough to determine the exact
position, knowing that Emmanuel can only communicate on VHF (at short
distance thus) and does not have a beacon of automatic positioning and
that his sat. phone is still silent.
Jean-Marie THELIER, who is the president of
Guadeloupe Sailing League and president of the Cataraibes Sailing Club,
had already accomodated Emmanuel in 2001 at the time of his 1st crossing
of the Atlantic from Grande Canaria to Guadeloupe.
We all reassured of the fate of Emmanuel, who
courageously continues his crossing towards Guadeloupe, his
selflessness, and hope that he will break the record, as for the moment
he's in his 40th day at sea.
Bonsoir Kenneth.
February 12th
2004
First of all let us thank you for your message.
Yes, we have no telephone contact with Emmanuel since Friday February
6th. As per his last call Thursday evening, everything goes well for
him, he was excited as he already have done more
than 70 miles this day for sure and all was well.
We think, as you suggested Kenneth, that his arrival probably could
happen by the end of the next week, weather permitting of course.
And yes Emmanuel has a distress beacon on board — KANNAD 406 M
(presented by his partners La SERPE-IESM of GUIDEL).
This afternoon we had a conversation with radio stations (Radio France
International - Emmanuel used to listen to this station, therefore will
hear our message - and Monaco-Radio - mostly for
any ship or boat in his vicinity) and they confirmed they're
still broadcasting the support messages for Emmanuel and his estimated
positions.
Also in Guadeloupe a team (with Jean-Marie Thellier) is preparing to go
to sea to meet Emmanuel when he'll approach the islands and then to
accomodate him.
A bientot Kenneth
Bon Courage to Ocean Regatta entrants and every rower now at sea.
On Emmanuel's behalf
Sylviane et Michel
