Lucky escape for sailors after their schooner sinks
FOUR sailors are lucky to be alive after their vessel struck rocks off the Roustel Beacon in the Little Russel and sank within minutes.
The strong tide swept the crewmen more than a mile from the beacon, where they were picked up by the lifeboat on Friday evening.
Just the two masts of the schooner can be seen above the waves, pictured right, and Guernsey Harbour has been investigating how to move the vessel from the edge of the shipping channel.
Search and Rescue co-ordinator Vince Helmot said that the four Polish nationals had been discharged from hospital and were now recovering in a local bed and breakfast.
'They were very lucky,' he said.
'They are very cold and in shock.'
Phone calls were made to the emergency services by the public just before 6pm on Friday night, after the yacht was spotted sinking a mile off Bordeaux, close to the Roustel Beacon.
