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The evacuation of GGR member Susie Goodall was a success.

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British woman Susie Goodall, who participated in the Golden Globe Race non-stop solo round-the-world regatta, was hoisted aboard the 190-metre Hong Kong dry cargo vessel MV«TIAN FU» at 15:14 UTC on 7 December. Her Rustler 36 Starlight lost her mast during a storm in the South Pacific on December 5 . Goodall , 29, is the only female competitor in the Golden Globe Race and the youngest sailor in the regatta. She was going fourth in the racing fleet.

The vessel was drifting at sea anchor at approximately one knot before rescuers arrived. The waves gradually decreased first to five and then to three to four meters, and the wind weakened from 45 to 20 knots. In addition to the GGR organizers, Goodall was kept in touch for some time by Dutchman Mark Slats, who is running second in the race and is now in the vicinity of Argentina.

Attempts to start the engine were unsuccessful. After one of the tests it ran for 20 minutes and did not want to start again in any way. This meant that the 40,000-ton dry cargo vessel would have to manoeuvre to get close to the Goodall boat.

« TIAN FU» arrived a little ahead of schedule, an hour before dawn. At first light the rescue operation began.
It proved impossible to launch the lifeboat from the bulk carrier. The woman was hoisted with the onboard crane on the winch. She could only take one bag with her.

« Hot cup!» - Goodall wrote joyfully from the board of the bulk carrier.

While waiting for help, the girl suffered from weakness, seasickness and lack of sleep. She admitted she longed for tea, but after the accident she had no way to heat food and water. There was simply nothing to do it on.

Although the warm welcome on the drydock was very welcome, Goodall still feels a little lost away from her beautiful Starlight. Watching her disappear from sight was hard for her. To her ship the brave Brit said goodbye forever: it will sink.

The news of Goodall's rescue delighted Estonian Uku Randmaa. He was in the area during the storm and knows better than anyone what she is going through. Randmaa himself was more fortunate and continues on his way to Cape Horn unharmedand in third place in the GGR fleet. Two days later, on December 9, he admitted that he still thinks about the eliminated race participants: Not just Goodall, but also Norwegian Are Wig, Indian AbhilashTomy and Irishman Gregor McGuckin.

Clearly the Finn Tapio Lehtinen, who is in fifth place in the race just starting his journey across the Pacific, was also very worried about Goodall.

« Six hurrahs! Best wishes to Susie! Big hugs! Thanks to the rescuers! » " he wrote upon learning that the girl was safe.

Another reason for him to rejoice was, oddly enough, the appearance of two sharks near the boat.

« Two sharks eat sea ducks (I think). Don't have to dive»," he said in a recent post.

Maybe it was the delicacies on the bottom of the boat that attracted the shark that startled Randmaa when he was cleaning his boat somewhere in these same waters?

Suffering from an invasion of sea ducks, Igor Zaretsky of Russia, who is trailing the GGR fleet, will arrive in the Australian port of Albany on the afternoon of December 10.

« On the shore is not bad, of course. At least to see the people. But the worst thing about all these stops is that you don't want to go to sea afterwards»," Zaretsky said.

Except cleaning the bottom «Esmeralda» from live bush and painting «with neobraskoy» in the near future the yachtsman plans to change the forestaff and replenish the food and water supplies. On shore the Russian crew of compatriots and locals are already waiting to help in any way they can.

« coco captain» Mark Sinclair in his native Adelaide, Australia , last weekend already got rid of«hares»and now is considering whether he wants to continue the race at all.

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