Sailor's Ship Mysteriously Sank in Shark-Infested Waters of Port Elizabeth, South Africa in the Dead of Night

Sailor Tapio Lehtinen, 64, was one of the contestants of the 2022 Golden Globe Race earlier in November but was unable to finish it after his yacht sank in shark-infested waters, around 450 miles off the coast of South Africa. The Finnish skipper managed to survive the incident after spending around 24 hours on his life raft, which he salvaged first among many other things before his boat capsized.

The race is known as a solo, non-stop water-sailing event that started on September 4 this year from Les Sables-d'Olonne, France, with a final destination to Australia through the Southern Ocean. As Tapio passed South Africa, he reportedly entered Port Elizabeth's dangerous water where a number of shark species are found, including the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias).

Stranded at Sea

shark-infested waters — Image by Sarah Richter from Pixabay

It was the evening of November 18, more than a month since the race began, when Tapio woke up hearing a loud bang and only realized that seawater is already pouring into his vessel. His location is significantly far from mainland South Africa.

It was already knee deep when additional water from the engine compartment entered the stern of the boat, according to Sebatien Delasnerie, spokesperson for the Golden Globe Race, who told Newsweek about the incident.

The vessel received ocean floodwaters until the deck level within five minutes and Tapio immediately came to the realization that he had to abandon his ship, wear his survival sit, take his communication equipment and enter the life raft.

The reason behind the capsized boat remains unknown since Tapio showed confusion and reportedly said his boat had been rebuilt four years. It was also inspected prior to the race and was assessed to be in perfect condition. In terms of weather, Tapio said it was like summer conditions with no severe weather expected during that time of the race.

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Rescue Response

The nearest people to Tapio were fellow Golden Globe race contestants Kirsten Neuschafer and Abhilash Tomy, who received the coordinates of Tapio when he initiated a distress signal from a beacon device that he also brought to the life raft. The SOS signal was picked up by the event's crisis management team.

The two contestants were around 105 and 170 miles away from Tapio, who was eventually found by Kirsten and helped him aboard her boat.

Tapio had no food and water with him when he was floating with his life raft prior to the rescue.

Shark-Infested Waters

South Africa's waters are known to be a home for a number of deadly sharks. In recent months, there have been multiple incidents of shark attacks targeting swimmers or beachgoers in general.

In September, a South Africa-based mother was killed by an unidentified shark off the waters of the Plettenberg Bay area. The victim was with her family at the beach several hundred mils away from their home in Cape Town, CBS News reports.