The Mystery of the Ghost Ship Lunatic

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‘I went out on deck and there she was, just drifting along. Her mainsail was set but it was in tatters.’ What happened to Jure Sterk? Was he the victim of foul play? or did he fall overboard? why was the dinghy missing? What is the real story of this Slovenian sailor who was on his last leg to become the ‘oldest circumnavigator in the smallest engine-less boat’?

72-year old Jure Sterk left Tauranga, New Zealand, in December 2007 on his sailboat ‘Lunatic Piran’. His boat may have been small, but his ambition was large – a non-stop circumnavigation. However his story had not begun there, and was already a testament both to the sailor’s doggedness and his love of the sea. 
He had actually left Europe three years before – on the 5th September 2004 – in an effort to circumnavigate without making landfall. Each time he experienced problems with the boat and was obliged to enter ports for repairs.

However, finally he set sail to the East from New Zealand and his plan was reportedly to sail via Cape Horn, north around the Azores, back around Cape of Good Hope, around Tasmania, across the Southern Ocean, around the bottom of New Zealand and back to Tauranga.

In the beginning of this year Jure was on his last leg to New Zealand.

He had kept contact with amateur radio enthusiasts, but was last reported in early January 2009.

On April 30, the RV Roger Revelle, out of San Diego, CA, USA was enroute from Durban, South Africa to Freemantle/Perth, Australia on an oceanographic research cruise and was at Latitude 32-18.0S, Longitude 091-07.0E,, when the 2nd mate sighted the drifting boat.

An oceanographer crew member picks up the story:

While steaming at 12 knots toward our next station, the ship unexpectedly stopped several miles before the station. We were wondering what the occasion was, did someone hook a tuna finally? I was in the lab running nutrient samples when my lab partner from the other watch came in and said that we had found a sailboat with no one on board.

Enough to make me cry. I didn’t take a picture of that, I think I’m glad.

However, the story is not ended, and the mystery may have been cleared by another cruising sailor, Peter, on his yacht Coconut, who was sailing in the Indian Ocean.

He writes:
‘I was sailing my small yacht 1000 miles behind Juri (also heading East)and had daily radio conversations with him.

‘The plan on the day of his accident was to get in his dinghy and clean his rudder and trim tab as the fouling had reduced his speed to 2-3knots. His forestay was broken some time previous and his main had been reduced in size as it was torn.

‘His plan was to get some more speed and to clean up his steering system. The weather on the day I lost radio contact was as good as it gets down there and he had been waiting for that break in the weather.

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