Has anyone seen or heard from the S/Y 'Colros'?

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Has anyone seen or heard from the S/Y \'Colros\'?

Just received this email from Mike.

If anybody has seen or heard from Colros, could you send Barbara and Mike an email please?
And post a note on here as well?

Thanks.

From: "Mike" <k5mp@hwn.org>
Subject: S/V COLROS, overdue United Kingdom to Madeira en route to Tobago
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 07:52:47 -0500

This request for assistance is being sent via blind distribution to members of the International Boat Watch Network who are in the affected areas of interest. Also, copy is included for Barbara Smith, originator of the request.
==============================
================================
============


We have a request for assistance from Barbara Smith, on behalf of the
worried family members of the skipper of S/V COLROS which is overdue on his
journey from Cornwall, United Kingdom to Madeira in route ultimately to
Tobago in the Caribbean.

COLROS is described as follows: Length: 27 feet, Construction: steel, Type:
sloop, off-white hull paint, new red sails, windvane, bowsprit, perspex
observation dome, low doghouse, transom-hung rudder, long keel, small
self-draining cockpit, diesel-powered. Home Port: Salcombe, Devon, United
Kingdom, Registration #: 122221

We are unclear exactly what communications capabilities are on board and
working. We believe he has marine VHF, and the capability for Amateur Radio
and Winlink 2000 (he had a ham radio license) amateur radio callsign:
M0SYC. No position reports have ever been posted on Winlink by this vessel.

Colros left Newlyn, Cornwall, United Kingdom on Dec 22 2006. Last contact
from Colros was via cell phone from five miles off Land's End, Cornwall,
United Kingdom on Dec 22 2006. First destination was Madeira (ETA within a
month of Dec 22 2006), not to stop but just to check in with family via cell
phone, but we didn't hear anything. Final destination on this leg of journey
was Tobago, Carribean, ETA mid-February 2007.

Persons on Board: One male, 53 years old. Name: David H.H.L. Cartwright.
Citizen of United Kingdom.

Message: David, please call home, we are worried about you.

Any sighting or contact with this vessel should be reported to Barbara Smith
(bsmith@getty.edu), phone ((h) 310-745-4660 or (w) 310-440-7118. Also,
please notify myself so that I may update our boat watch records.

Thanks,

Mike Pilgrim, K5MP
International Boat Watch Network
 
Update re the over-due S/Y \'Colros\', Newlyn - Madeira

Just received the email below from David's cousin Barbara.

I know this is a long shot, but I am wondering if any forum members have any ideas about what further action could be taken now to find out where David is?

I must admit that the situation does not look hopeful - he headed south almost 3 months ago now, has never reported in, and no other vessel has reported seeing him.

My most optimistic theory would be that he was dismasted and is slowly making his way across the Atlantic drifting or with a very basic jury rig.

Barbara said :

I am the person who posted the Incident Report on Boatwatch for Colros.
David Cartwright, my cousin, is the single-handed skipper of Colros and
he left Newlyn, England, on Dec 22 2006 heading towards Madeira, where
family and friends expected to hear from him by cell phone "within a
month." This was the initial phase of a trip that would take him on to
the Carribean, through the Panama Canal, to Southern California, where I
live -- and then beyond. He has been a boatbuilder in the UK for 25
years and bought and completely refurbished his 27-foot steel 1963 Dutch
sloop himself in order to fulfil a lifelong dream to sail singlehandedly
around the world.

David left the UK in a short weather window between a series of almost
incessant gales and was almost desparate to get away, having been held
up by the bad weather for a few weeks. The biggest problem is that he
presumably left without his ham radio working with his computer and so
couldn’t send any e-mails or position reports. We do not know if he is
able to receive any messages or transmit verbally. I suppose we have to
presume that he can’t transmit or he would have got a message to
someone, somewhere, to pass on to someone by now. Because of this, we
have no idea of his progress through any part of the journey. We do not
know if he can hear any messages being transmitted to him. The
Boatwatch network has tried to contact him via his ham radio but get no
response from his callsign (m0syc). Even if he can hear messages, we
don’t know if he can transmit, so might be out there hearing the
messages but not being able to respond. Because of this, we have no idea
what route he was following, or what speed he was travelling, or what
weather he was experiencing; neither do we know if he has lost his mast
which would put his radio out of action anyway, but I assume that the
radio just wasn’t working.

The part of the voyage he was most worried about was leaving Britain,
and then crossing the continental shelf from Britain and into the deep
Atlantic, as the changing height of the ocean floor can cause more
turbulent waters. This probably is an area with some of the busiest
shipping lanes, with ships coming north and south to and from Africa and
Europe and also west and east across the Atlantic. We had high pressure
forecast at this time and he took this opportunity of a gap in the low
pressure systems, which had been holding him up all along the south
Coast, to leave. His less than satisfactory radio set up was not clear
to us before he left, but we all trusted his ability, sailing
experience, resourcefulness, physical fitness and knowledge of the boat
and weather to see him through.

I got in touch with Falmouth Coastguard end-January and they made
initial inquiries with Madeira. We all assumed that, since he had food
on board for 90 days, he had bypassed Madeira for some reason and was
headed toward the Carribean. Two weeks ago Falmouth Coastguard put out
the word to all relevant shipping and ports inquiring if he'd been seen
and, as you know, Boatwatch put out a similar call to 5000 of their
members. So far no one has heard anything.

This situation has left us all in anguish, as I'm sure you can
appreciate. If David is slowly limping towards the Carribean in a
disabled boat, what are the chances that he'll be spotted? If he did
have an accident, will we ever know what happened to him? Is it crazy
to think that he could still be en route at this point, and when do we
have to start assuming the worst? It has occurred to us that he might -
for whatever reason - have changed his plans entirely and be headed
eastwards to Africa or beyond. In other words, he may have just
"dropped out" by choice and not told us - in which case, how will we
ever know?

I am trying to understand the possibilities of what might have happened to him, and whether it is possible to do anything in addition to contacting the UK Coastguard and Boatwatch. I realize it's a long shot, but do you have any thoughts as to where I could get some knowledgeable advice?

Thank you so much for your time,
Barbara
 
Re: Update re the over-due S/Y \'Colros\', Newlyn - Madeira

Sorry for the totally unhelpful post but for those with the computer on the right settings my post will return this to the top for a bit longer , more chance of someone with info seeing it then
 
Re: Update re the over-due S/Y \'Colros\', Newlyn - Madeira

only problem with stickies is that peeps tend to ignore them ,, but if we keep replying till someone sees what can help ,, it works better
 
Re: Update re the over-due S/Y \'Colros\', Newlyn - Madeira

Has anyone contacted the UK maritime mobile net ?

They have a net on 14.303 at 1800 zulu daily. I just had a look and can't see an email address for them. I could try to contact the net by radio but reception is always marginal for me here and it's a complex message. Anyone else ?
 
Re: Update re the over-due S/Y \'Colros\', Newlyn - Madeira

TNX for that idea re the UK MM net, but I am sure that Mike copied them in from the beginning - I think that Bill G4FRN is still doing a grand job of running the net, despite fewer and fewer check-ins these days, as a result of so many blue water sailors 'going over to the dark side' from ham radios to sat-phones.

I have Bill's email address, and will forward on the link to this thread for reference.
 
Re: Update re the over-due S/Y \'Colros\', Newlyn - Madeira

Thanks to all of you for trying to keep this post open, and for posting it in the first instance. If there is any way you can increase the number of people reading about David then please do so, as if anyone has had any sighting of him at any time then we would love to know. Here is a little about the person behind that message.
David means a great deal to a lot of people. He has used this forum in the past as dcboat and worked in Suffolk as David Catwright Boatbuilder.
This guy is no novice sailor. I've sailed with him for the last 5 years and spent hours pouring over charts and discussing his trip with him. He was totally aware and prepared for all that he might encounter. He searched long and hard for the boat he thought would best cope with the trip, the weather and sea conditions it would have to endure, and at the same time would be manageable singlehanded. Colros is very similar to a Vertue but was designed by Lemstra and built in Holland for the Dutch Navy. David reduced the size of the cockpit to a minimum and built in steel lockers where the open transom locker was, to reduce the effects of waves swamping the boat. As a professional boatbuilder, preparing a boat for this voyage, he knew every inch of Colros and had every faith in his boat and his work.
Highly intelligent, yet incredibly practical and resourceful with many years of sailing experience, I have every faith in him and his abilities.
Let's hope he gets to read this one day soon.
Thanks again for your help and interest.
 
Re: Update re the over-due S/Y \'Colros\', Newlyn - Madeira

Hi and welcome , I'm not sure if there's a way of getting this viewed by even more people but I think there's more than a few on here that are trying to keep the thread viewable by replying . Best wishes to him and fingers crossed he'll be okay and just enjoying the sunshine somewhere
 
Re: Update re the over-due S/Y \'Colros\', Newlyn - Madeira

Thank you to everyone who has posted a message and joined this effort to find our beloved David. Does anyone know how we can search records for the weather between Falmouth and Madeira, between December 22 2006 and January 12 2007? Thank you, Barbara
 
Re: Update re the over-due S/Y \'Colros\', Newlyn - Madeira

Hi, I'm Davids ex. It's worth mentioning that Davids last message to me was "be in touch (in a month) from Madeira OR North West Spain." He also never mentioned Tobago to me but said Bermuda or Barbados would be his next port of call.
Thanks to everyone.
Linda
 
Re: Update re the over-due S/Y \'Colros\', Newlyn - Madeira

If anyone knows how to find the weather records they'll be on here , if you hang on for a while I'll see if I can raise our resident weather man
 
Re: Update re the over-due S/Y \'Colros\', Newlyn - Madeira

There's a website that has archived Met Office charts (all searchable by year/month/date) which might be of use. Click the link below.....

WETTERZENTRALE
 
Re: Update re the over-due S/Y \'Colros\', Newlyn - Madeira

Barbara,
I have 3 hourly forecasts for the atlantic for the whole of December and January. Contact me by PM (the forum email facility) and I will arrange to send you all the information.
Henry
 
Re: Update re the over-due S/Y \'Colros\', Newlyn - Madeira

Hi, got your email, happy to help if I can.

Firstly, I keep a full data set of Atlantic weather records here covering the period which I am happy to let you have, just email me at simon@weatherweb.net and I can arrange. However, do take up Henrys' offer of the 3-hourly charts too (are these actuals henry or GRIB forecasts?)

Just looking through the Wetterzentrale archive, briefly this is how things were UK to Maderia in the Atlantic:

22/12-28/12 Pretty inocuous, high pressure, relatively light winds for the time of year, nothing notable.

29/12 Winds started increasing western Bay area, F6-F7 estimate

30/12 Strong winds NW Spain,. Bay into Channel, risk of gales. F5-F6 off west Portugal.

31/12 - Stayed breezy through Bay, pressure building over Med and Iberia, lighter winds.

1/1 -10/1 onwards (assuming well clear of Bay area). High built through Iberia, and remained dominant

11/1 - Still high in Iberia but low close to west Canries, strong E winds through Madeira, estimate F5-F6 but could have been F8 later on 11th or 12th.

13/1-22/1 Higher pressure again, lighter winds.


If you need more, just ask. Sorry it may not be of much use.

Best wishes and good luck,
Simon
 
Re: Update re the over-due S/Y \'Colros\', Newlyn - Madeira

Hi Simon,
I'm pleased to see that you are on to this. I've got the monthly wind and wave (nww3) Grib forecasts from polar.ncep.noaa.gov
If Barbara gets back to me I'll extract the eastern Atlantic area and send her the files and my viewer and help her set things up.
As I understand it, these files are made up of the current period data for each modelling run throughout the month, so should be close to actual conditions. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Henry
 
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