13 km north-west of Warnemünde: Sea rescue services rescue participants in the Baltic Crossing Challenge

At around 1.15 pm, the German Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Bremen, operated by the DGzRS, received a report of a missing windsurfer. He was taking part in the ‘Baltic Crossing Challenge’ – an event forming part of this year’s ‘Hanse Sail’. The regatta ran from Gedser in Denmark to Warnemünde, some 26 nautical miles (around 48 kilometres) away. It was unclear at that point exactly where the windsurfer was.

"The regatta ran from Gedser in Denmark to Warnemünde, some 26 kilometres away."

Four ships involved in the operation

The DGzRS Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre immediately alerted the sea rescue team at the Warnemünde station. They set out a few minutes later aboard the sea rescue cruiser ARKONA. In addition, the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre called upon, amongst others, the coastal patrol boat ‘Warnow’ from the Rostock Water Police Inspectorate, the deep-sea salvage tug ‘Baltic’ from the Federal Ministry of Transport (BMV) and the research vessel ‘Elisabeth M. Borgese’ from the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research in Warnemünde (IOW). Thanks to a tip-off from the two harbour masters in Warnemünde, the exact position of the missing person was determined: all participants in the ‘Baltic Crossing Challenge’ were carrying a so-called tracker, which transmitted their location to a live map. The sea rescue services used this information to search for the missing person.

Windsurfer rescued an hour after the alarm was raised

About an hour after the alarm was raised, the sea rescue team finally found the 57-year-old man about seven nautical miles (around 13 kilometres) north-west of Warnemünde. The windsurfer was sitting on his board, completely exhausted and already suffering from hypothermia. With a north-westerly wind of force five (up to 38 km/h) and waves up to two metres high, he had been unable to pull his sail out of the water and set off under his own steam. The sea rescue team picked up the water sports enthusiast using the CASPAR, a subsidiary vessel of the sea rescue cruiser ARKONA. The volunteer sea rescue doctor on board provided medical care to the patient. Back in the harbour, the lifeguards handed him over to an ambulance. Meanwhile, the ‘Warnow’ and the ‘Baltic’ had retrieved the sail and surfboard from the water.

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