Medical emergency at sea.
Documented medical emergency incidents from the Logbook — 7 records, each with sources, lessons, and the SeaWise procedures that address it.
← Search & filter the full LogbookA medical emergency offshore is defined by distance: help may be hours or days away, and the crew is the first responder. The accounts here — a fall below, a sudden collapse, a serious injury under way — turn on preparation: a stocked and known first-aid kit, someone aboard who has trained for it, and the judgement to call for advice or evacuation early rather than hoping it improves.
On 21 June 2026 a 57-year-old Frenchman sailing alone off Faial in the Azores called for help at 0400 in difficulty. Heavy seas delayed the Horta lifeboat, so he was not lifted off until 0845, by then exhausted, and was taken to hospital. The yacht he left behind then drifted for about ten days before grounding.
A 74-year-old Canadian sailing solo from Hilo, Hawaii to Vancouver lost his mast and engine and injured his shoulder in a gale with roughly 30-foot seas about 489 nautical miles off Oregon. Too far out for a Coast Guard helicopter, his distress call — relayed through his satellite communicator — brought the cruise ship Silver Whisper, which diverted, came alongside in heavy swell, and took him off. His sailboat was left adrift.
In Cook Strait around 20-21 May 2026, the 11-metre yacht Boxing Kangaroo issued two maydays. First, a seriously ill crew member was evacuated off Cape Palliser in an overnight, 82-nautical-mile Coastguard operation. The skipper then stayed aboard alone; as conditions worsened he became lost and called again. An RNZAF P-8A Poseidon found the boat near Baring Head and HMNZS Taupo rescued him before midnight. Both men survived.
In early February 2026, a 32-year-old American crewman aboard the sailing yacht Lena Rae fell seriously ill — chest pain and breathlessness — on a passage from St Helena to the Caribbean, about 1,600 km from Recife, Brazil. Brazil's sea-rescue service diverted a nearby merchant ship to take him aboard, and a Brazilian Air Force helicopter then flew from Natal to evacuate him to hospital.
On 5 August 2025, three years into a round-the-world voyage, the 74-year-old skipper of the New Zealand yacht Mollie was killed when he was drawn onto a powered winch about 2.8 miles off the Needles, Isle of Wight. Clearing a rope left turned around the faulty electric winch, his hand was caught and the winch pulled him onto the drum. An RNLI crew freed him, but he died of crush injuries.
On 28 May 2011, the commercially operated Beneteau 40.7 Liquid Vortex was racing the Myth of Malham in Lyme Bay when she suffered an accidental gybe that seriously injured one crew member. The Marine Accident Investigation Branch found that the skipper had driven the boat and crew hard, when — with many of the novice crew tired and seasick in demanding conditions — a more cautious and encouraging approach was warranted.
On 22 August 2007, 2.5 miles southwest of St Alban's Head, the Elan 333 cruiser-racer Buccaneer of Upnor gybed inadvertently while an inexperienced helmsman struggled to hold course in a northerly force 5-6 gusting 7. During the gybe the mainsheets swept the mate against the edge of the coachroof, causing fatal injuries. There were six people aboard, on a delivery passage from Plymouth to Gosport.