Anaho 2 - A 13 m yacht is found drifting and empty in the Bay of Biscay two days after her solo skipper left for Cape Verde; she sinks and the search is called off

On 15 August 2026 a 71-year-old sailor left Arzal, in the Morbihan, alone aboard his 13 m yacht Anaho 2, bound for Cape Verde. Two days later a passenger on a Brittany Ferries crossing noticed a yacht adrift in the Bay of Biscay, roughly 100 km west of the Ile d'Yeu. The ferry stopped and three crew went across in a lifeboat. They found no sign of life aboard or around the boat. No distress beacon had been set off. CROSS Etel and the Atlantic maritime prefecture launched a search with a helicopter and a surveillance aircraft that night and again the next day, in a slight sea. According to accounts from the sailing community, the aircraft found the yacht's inflatable tender, empty. By the evening of 18 August the yacht, already partly submerged, had sunk in more than 100 m of water, and the maritime prefect ended the search. The skipper was not found. Nothing published explains how he came to leave the boat, and with no beacon, no AIS and no witness there may never be an answer. What the case shows is how silent a single-handed passage can be when something goes wrong on deck.