Duo rescued near Bermuda Triangle after yacht trouble

Feb 24 2009 The Journal

A NORTH East sailor was plucked to safety after her yacht spent 40 days drifting in the Atlantic.

Andrea Davison, 48, from Wallsend, was stranded with partner Stuart Armstrong after the rudder broke 1,200 miles from Antigua.

The pair had hoped to make their way to Bermuda using their sails, but just 229 miles from the coast they had to abandon their ship.

They were lifted to safety yesterday by a passing Italian supertanker, just before they drifted into the notorious Bermuda Triangle. Andrea, who lived on the boat with Stuart, revealed the hardest part of the ordeal was leaving her home behind.

The mum-of-two, originally from Hadrian’s Park, said: “It’s your life, it’s all there (in the boat). It’s the life I’ve built with Stuart and I had to leave it all behind. That’s the hardest part.

“We had wanted to make it, but we were warned there were storms coming which were too big if they hit us.

“We had tried to use the sails, but we kept getting blown around in circles. That was when I started to get concerned. I knew we were riding our luck and we wouldn’t be able to go on for much longer.”

Their drama began when the rudder of their 40ft yacht, Sara, broke six days after they left the Cape Verde islands off the West Coast of Africa for their planned 2,500 mile trip. They had been planning to stay in Antigua until April on their £60,000 yacht.