Rescued sailors on a slow boat to China

10:12 PM Fri 31 Jul 2009 GMT

'Sail Indonesia Rally rescue' .

Two Australian sailors who set off to sail in a rally from Darwin to Ambon in Indonesia never dreamed that they would end up sailing to China.

While they were returning home from participating in this year's 'Sail Indonesia' yacht rally they sounded the alarm when they found the integrity of their catamaran had failed and the two hulls were in danger of coming asunder.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) went into action, and the Gerasimos, a Liberian flagged ship, was diverted to rescue the pair. The rescue took place 400 miles off Darwin, but the ship is on its way to China, so that's where the hapless sailors will end up - whenever the ship gets there.

Tracey Jiggins, spokesperson for the AMSA, says the rescue was never going to be a quick one.

'Unfortunately when we first notified the merchant vessel, it was about 7.5 hours away from the location of Mai Tai,' she said.

'But that was the closest vessel and the closest asset ourselves or Indonesia had to the missing vessel.'

The crew of the catamaran were told to keep the vessel moving for safety reasons, and the two finally made rendezvous.

Ms Jiggins says the rescue was a success. 'The two men have been taken on board Gerasimos and they're now on their way to Long Kou in China, which was the destination of the vessel before it diverted.'

'They notified race organisers, they then notified us, we notified the appropriate authorities in Indonesia,' she said.

The catamaran was abandoned at sea and it it is not known when the men will return to Australia.

Sail Indonesia Rally left Darwin on July 18. Most rally boats are still continuing on their circuitous route among the islands of Indonesia, visiting Saumlaki, Lembata, Wakatobi, Flores, Sulawesi, Bali, Java, Borneo, Belitung and finally on to Batam just south of Singapore.

by Nancy Knudsen

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Rescued sailors on a slow boat to China

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