Sailor survives 16 hours in FREEZING Atlantic Ocean after boat capsizes

Sailor survives 16 hours in FREEZING Atlantic Ocean after boat capsizes
Capsized boat as spotted by a helicopter (L); rescue team attaching buoyancy balloons to the ship's hull (L) (Twitter)

A 62-year-old French sailor recently survived in the Atlantic Ocean for 16 hours after his boat capsized. The sailor used only an air bubble inside the vessel that had turned upside down. The boat was 40-foot long and was called the Jeanne SOLO Sailor. It had set its sail from the Portuguese capital of Lisbon on Sunday morning, according to the tracking data.

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The coast guard said that they received a distress signal from the boat at 11:23 pm (local time) on Monday. Soon a coast guard ship with five divers set out for the rescue mission. Three helicopters were also deployed for the search, one of which spotted the capsized boat. The sailor was finally rescued 14 miles from the Sisargas Islands off Spain's northwestern Galicia region. During the search, a diver was lifted onto the ship's hull to seek signs of life. The sailor, whose identity has not been confirmed, responded to the banging on the hull by knocking from inside. 

During the search, the sea was too rough and so the rescue team attached buoyancy balloons to the ship's hull to prevent it from sinking further and waited until the morning with the sailor still stuck underneath. Two of the divers acted quickly and swam under the boat to help the sailor. He was found wearing a neoprene survival suit and submerged in waters up to his knees.