Eerie moment sailors find ‘ghost ship’ drifting just 60 miles from the Bermuda Triangle with no soul on board
THIS is the eerie moment sailors stumble across a ‘ghost ship’ drifting 800 miles from Bermuda with no one on board.
Two yachties from Ocean Research Project came across the abandoned boat in the Atlantic Ocean.
The researchers noticed the boats sail wasn’t up, the motor wasn’t running and “there was no sign of anyone”.
Worried that someone might be hurt, the pair decided to climb aboard and check it out.
One of the team members, Matt Rutherford, who was the first man to ever sail non-stop on his own around North and South America, filmed himself as he went in for a closer look.
He said: “This is one awfully abandoned sailboat. Wolfhound from the Irish yacht club.
“I have no idea what’s inside, I’m going to go and search around and I hope I don’t find any dead bodies or anything.”
As he ventured inside the boat, Matt said he was afraid to open doors and cabinets/
After having a look around, he said: “No dead bodies, thank God.
“This is absolutely crazy by the way. 800 miles from Bermuda, 1500 miles from the US, standing on a very nice Swan 48, in the middle of the ocean.”
The pair began dragging the boat behind their own, making it about 50 miles on the second day.
Matt said: “It’s kinda funny, 48ft boat with a 42ft boat. We’re doing our best trying to get her to Bermuda.”
After spending 47 days at sea, the pair began running low on fuel so convinced a passing freighter to stop and give them some gas.
They continued to pull Wolfhound but eventually had to cut the tow line after it got wrapped around the rudder, and threatened to break it off.
According to online sleuths, the boat belonged to skipper Alan McGettigan from the Royal Irish Yacht Club.
He and crewmates Declan Hayes, Morgan Crowe and Tom Mulligan were rescued by a Greek cargo ship 64 miles north of Bermuda when their 48-ft yacht suffered two knockdowns during in 20-ft waves and 50 knots wind.
Alan activated an emergency beacon and they left Wolfhound in the water.
Nine weeks later, it was stumbled upon by Matt and his team who filmed the recovery and posted the footage to social media this week.