When this guys yacht came adrift from anchor on St Martin Island in the Caribbean, it first drifted into a nearby bridge before being towed off, but in the process it sustained some damage to the hull. It later sunk, off to the side of the main channel, sitting on the bottom full of water and covered in all the usual items one would find on a yacht sailing around the world. That's not the story though, the real story is what this passer by found when he went back to check on the sunken yacht a few days later.

The yacht was still there, on the bottom, full of water, listing at a 45 degree angle with half the deck underwater. Hoisted from the masthead was a spinnaker, trimmed to near perfection, standing out clearly from the blue water of St Martin in yellow and white. Just below the spinnaker, was a fully inflated lift raft, with a guy swimming around it!

Of course if you arrived to a scene like this, the immediate question you'd ask the guy was whether he was ok. He was, happily swimming over to the life raft and jumping inside. All he wanted was some cigarettes and beer, asked in a thick French accent with little in the way of anxiety or concern in his voice.

A couple of days later, the boat was gone, assumed floated by a salvage company and hauled out for repair. Why the spinnaker was up, nobody will ever know, and whether in fact the French man in the lift raft was the owner, will also remain a mystery.

Check out the video to see the strange circumstances around this stricken yacht on St Martin, and if you're worried about this happening to you, read our article from last week, giving you three great tips for setting a perfect anchor .

#News #Sailing