06 September 2023 , 22:00
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A group of sailors on an around-the-world trip ran into trouble when their catamaran was torn apart by sharks.
The two Russians and a French national on-board, who were tracing the knots of a 19th Century adventurer, let off an SOS after the hulls of both the boats they were sailing on sustained damage amid "several shark attacks".
They were around 520 miles off the coast of Cairns in Australia's Coral Sea when the monster fish attacked them, they said as they recounted the experience online. The first incident happened on September 4, but the sharks weren't finished and returned the next day, causing them to sink.
In aerial photos taken by an Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) plane, the catamaran could be seen flooded with water. The crew were rescued after AMSA officials sent a distress call to a Panama-registered car carrier called the Dugong Ace. The ship, which was around 30 nautical miles away at the time, changed its course and managed to find the the sailors.
It's believed that reef sharks attacked the boat (@russian.ocean.way/Instagram)Miraculously, none of them had sustained any injuries during the incident, and they were able to climb up the long boarding ladder unaided.
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The three men, whose ages ranged from 28 to 64, were "very happy to be rescued and they are all healthy and well and aboard the Dugong Ace,” according to acting manager of the AMSA Response Centre Joe Zeller. Zeller added: “There’s many reasons why vessels are attacked by sharks. However, the motivations of these sharks are unclear.."
The crew and their catamaran were on a three-year re-enactment voyage, tracing the same route made by a Russian explorer in the 19th Century. A spokesperson for Russian Ocean Way said it wasn't the first accident during the voyage, and that the steering device of another vessel failed as they crossed from Chile to Easter Island.
An AMSA spokesperson said they were lucky considering a large part of the boat, its right aft, had been lost to the sea.