A lone freighter on Friday searched a remote Antarctic area the size of Belgium for a Canadian yachtsman missing in the solo round-the-world Vendee Globe race.
Anxiety at the fate of Canadian Gerry Roufs marred the joy at the Vendee Globe Paris headquarters over the Australian navy's dramatic rescue of Briton Tony Bullimore and Frenchman Thierry Dubois on Thursday.A spokeswoman for the race organizers said the Panamanian freighter Mas Enterprise, with a British skipper, had so far failed to find any trace of Roufs and his yacht, the Group LG2.
"Given the size of the area, it would be a miracle if we got news already," she told Reuters.
She said the area, one of the world's most remote more than 2,300 nautical miles from any land - New Zealand, Chile or French Polynesia - was out of reach for rescue planes.
Two other competitors were heading toward the area and expected to reach it Friday night and Saturday.
A third sailor, Frenchwoman Isabelle Autissier, exhausted and her yacht damaged by wild seas, abandoned the search and resumed her normal route at slow speed.
"Impossible reaching the place you asked me to reach. I cannot sail upwind without my main sail," she cabled the French rescue service Cross-Etel, which is coordinating the search from western France.
"Visibility nil. Heavy seas. I cannot help but think of Gerry. I hope they spot him. I am going to sleep," she said.
Roufs has been missing since Tuesday. Organizers say that either his satellite beacon is faulty and he is sailing normally and deemed it unnecessary to call for help, or he has suffered a serious accident and was unable to call for help.