Turkish sailors aboard a private oil tanker belonging to a Turkish company rescued a French man who had gone missing off the Atlantic coast some time ago in a rescue operation on June 24, the local media reported Monday.
The sailors on the Turkish ship initiated a rescue operation following a warning message issued by the U.S. Coast Guard.
They rescued the French adventurer Didier Bovard, who had been missing at sea for 137 days while progressing in the Atlantic Ocean with his special 6-meter boat off the coast of Puerto Rico, in a six-hour operation.
Bovard, who set off from the Canary Islands, was aboard a custom-made pedal-powered boat and was pulled onto the deck by the efforts of the Turkish sailors after the six-hourlong operation.
"They asked us to rescue the boat. The message from the U.S. Coast Guard said, 'A boat is in distress, drifting 200 nautical miles north of Puerto Rico, with no mobility and a storm approaching. If it gets caught in the storm, it cannot be saved. You are the closest ship, and we want you to rescue it," Captain Necati Doğan stated in his social media post.
"We immediately initiated the necessary procedures and changed the ship's course to reach the location quickly. After about four hours of searching, we only saw a shining mirror and headed toward it," he said.
Explaining that they whistled to alert the man and told him to get into the boat as they would throw a rope, Doğan noted they tried to attach a part of the 200-meter thin rope to the 6-meter boat, and thankfully succeeded in saving the French man.
"The man looked very tired and exhausted, so we immediately gave him water and chocolate to replenish his energy and checked his blood pressure," he added.
"First, he asked for a soda, then he said 'no power' or something and asked for something sweet," Doğan explained.
The French man, who had been in the ocean for 137 days, departed the ship with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers.
