Lost' yacht reappears after 44 days at sea
Anne Barrowclough

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A yacht feared lost at sea after the 8.8-magnitude Chile earthquake has finally arrived in a Chilean port, more than a month after it was scheduled to dock.

The 46-foot sloop, SS Columbia, and its five crew members were expected to arrive at the port of Coquimbo on February 27, the day that the earthquake struck. When it failed to arrive or to make radio contact fears grew for the safety of the boat and its crew, three of whom were on a skippers' training course.

On Sunday the Columbia and her exhausted crew sailed into the port, 35 days late, after spending days becalmed in the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles from their destination and completely unaware of the earthquake or the tsunami that followed.

Now questions are being asked about the behaviour of the boat's skipper, Polish-born French citizen Boguslaw Norwid, who, his crew allege, would not let them use a radio to contact their families to tell them that they were safe.
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The family of Mitchell Westlake, a 23-year-old former Australian Navy officer, feared that he had drowned when he failed to contact them after the earthquake. But on Monday Mr Westlake rang his grandfather, Ernie Westlake, at his Queensland home to say he was safe.

Mr Westlake said that his grandson was on a training cruise with two Canadian women, as well as Mr Norwid and his wife, when his boat became becalmed in the Pacific Ocean more than 1,000 miles (1,610km) off the coast of Chile, unaware of the powerful quake that killed almost 500 people in February.

"They had no idea there was a tsunami or an earthquake until they hit port yesterday," Mr Westlake said. "They only sighted land once and that was about five or six days ago when they sailed past Robinson Crusoe Island." Martin Neufeld, the husband of the Canadian crew member, Josee Chabot, said that his joy at his wife's survival was tempered by fury at Mr Norwid's "rogue-like" behaviour.

“We’re considering legal action,” Mr Neufeld told The Montreal Gazette newspaper, adding that Mr Norwid had not let his passengers use the radio to contact family and friends after they set sail from Ecuador on January 16.

“The captain wouldn’t turn on the radio, so they were unaware that anyone was looking for them,” Mr Neufeld claimed.

“The crew and boat came in safely, but that’s not good enough. He may be a great captain and have great experience, but he's a renegade.

"The worst part is not knowing, day in day out." According to the Gazette, checks by the Canadian Coast Guard found that the boat's call number appeared to be fake and did not appear in any data base. On January 17 Mr Norwid told Ecuadorian authorities that he was sailing straight to Coquimbo but it appears that he never reported entering Chilean waters.

The ship and its captain have a history of sailing under the radar.

In 2002 the same SS Columbia, with the same captain, disappeared for 13 days on its way from Vancouver to Mexico before it finally arrived in Manzanillo.

By then the US, Canadian and Mexican coast guards, as well as sailors up and down the Pacific Coast, were searching for their crew.

When they returned they explained that they had had to sit out a storm and wait in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for favourable winds.