Sailor Experiences Hours of Terror

[Hyperstorm]

Laguna - The extratropical hurricane "Catarina" left a swath of destruction in the State and in cities of Rio Grande do Sul. The winds reached 150 kilometres per hour and caused at least two deaths, left hundreds of people homeless and two embarkations disappeared at sea.

The Coastal Guard of Itajaí recorded two ship sinkings in the south coast of Santa Catarina yesterday morning, near the end of the Lighthouse of Santa Marta, in Laguna, due to the extratropical hurricane that affected the region.

The ship Vale 2, from Passos de Torres, sank near the Lighthouse of SantaMarta, with six crew members. The hurricane reached the fishing boat at about 11:30 pm on Saturday. Yesterday morning, at about the 8:30, sailors from the Capitania dos Portos de Laguna rescued Luciano da Silva, native of Itapema, and 2 other occupants of Vale 2, but apparently he was the only survivor.

Luciano says that the team of fishing men was in the coast of Santa Catarina for about two weeks. Everyone knew about the possibility of hurricane, but they did not believe that it could arrive so early, so they decided to prolong their activities. At around 11:30 pm the boat was picked up by the extreme winds and sank. Luciano remained seized to a structure from the boat, fluctuating with the aid of a lifeguard, during the entire night.

Luciano believes that more fishermen were alive, since they also counted with lifeguards.

Another shipwreck was the Antonio Venâncio, of Itajaí, also with six crew members. According to the Captainship commander Capitania dos Portos of Laguna, Ronaldo Schara Junior, several ships have arrived to the beach, but it was still not possible to identify their origins.

A third ship, Santa Maria Mar 21, of Santos, in Sao Paulo, stayed at sea due to a problem in the engine, near the area of where the Vale 2 shipwreck occured, in Laguna. The Navy and the Ports Captainship already found the boat and they towed it to the port of Laguna. All of the crew members are well and they intend to come back soon to its city of origin.

Eight ships from the Navy and from the Captainship of the Ports of Laguna, in addition to two airships, one from the Military Police and another one from the Navy, continued with the searches in the coast of Laguna during the entire day yesterday, but at the end of this edition, none of them have been found.

(P.S Please, excuse the English. I tried to translate it to the best of my knowledge of Portuguese and with an extra help of an online translator. I think is fairly readable, but let me know if there's anything that needs to be fixed.).

[MWatkins]

(P.S Please, excuse the English. I tried to translate it to the best of my knowledge of Portuguese and with an extra help of an online translator. I think is fairly readable, but let me know if there's anything that needs to be fixed.).

This is good stuff. Thanks for taking the time to translate these reports.

MW

[Hyperstorm]

Thank you. This is no problem, I try to do my best and I hope it serves its purpose.