The Spanish sailboat that went around the world on the Magellan route disappears in a super typhoon

2023-05-25 18:03:27

The Spanish sailboat ‘Pros’ has been missing since early Thursday morning, when it was hit by super typhoon Mawar on the island of Guam, in the Pacific Ocean. This 21-meter-long ship intended to go around the world on the occasion of the fifth centenary of Juan Sebatián Elcano’s voyage and for this she had left Seville in 2019 with seven crew members on board. Given the weather forecasts, the captain – former submarine commander Pepe Sola – had decided to remain on the island of Guam. In this way he has managed to save his men but he has not been able to avoid the shipwreck.

The ‘Pros’ have been the victim of typhoon ‘Mawar’, a meteorological phenomenon that the North American meteorological services have elevated to the category of super typhoon. According to the hurricane danger scale, ‘Mawar’ is at level 4, when the maximum is 5. Its passage through the island of Guam is causing enormous damage and devastating inland areas, although there have been no casualties.

GPS signal disappears

This absence of personal damage is due to the same cause for which the ‘Pros’ managed to save themselves: the forecasts of the meteorologists had already warned of the arrival of the super typhoon in that area of ​​the center of the Pacific Ocean. The ‘Pros’ received this notice on the 22nd, when she was anchored in the port of Apra, in Guam. She had arrived there on May 16, from the Solomon Islands. Given the weather warnings, the captain spoke with the port authorities to anchor the ship with special security measures and take refuge in a residence on the island to wait for the ‘Mawa’ to move away and they could resume the circumnavigation of the globe.

In the image above, the island of Guam hit by super typhoon ‘Mawar’. In the lower photos, the ‘Ros’ in two moments of his voyage.

Throughout Wednesday, the fury of the super typhoon reached the port. Those responsible for these facilities were able to photograph the ‘Pros’ when she was next to one of the pillars of the docks. At that time, Captain Sola and his men were following the situation of their ship thanks to GPS. With the arrival of night, the Spanish crew members saw how the ship’s signal disappeared from the monitoring screens. Refugees inside a house, they could not go near the port to find out what was happening. At dawn on Thursday, the captain and the sailors approached the port and found that the sailboat had disappeared. The port authorities and the United States Coast Guard told him that no trace of the ship could be detected. “The sailboat has not been found and we fear the worst,” said the spokespersons for the Association of Friends of the Great Spanish Navigators and Explorers (AGNYEE), the group that promotes this adventure.

an unlucky trip

The ‘Pros’ voyage was AGNYEE’s great project within the acts to commemorate the V Centenary of the circumnavigation carried out by the Getaria sailor, Juan Sebastián Elcano. The ship set sail in August 2019 from Seville and was scheduled to complete the voyage in three years. For this, it had a hundred trained volunteers who were going to take over at various times of the route to be able to carry out the trip around the world. However, luck has not accompanied this project. Part of the route was affected by the pandemic, forcing the ship to remain anchored for months in the Peruvian port of Callao. Her encounter with the ‘Mawar’ has been the definitive bad streak.