Woman overboard

Asia Pajkovska was swept off Alphagraphics but recovered after 20 minutes by the crew

At 1940 GMT yesterday evening Helena Darvelid, skipper of Alphagraphics, had to deal with one of yachting's worst nightmares - man overboard - when the team's Polish crew member Asia Pajkovska, 38, was swept away from the all-girl boat in 35 knot winds and a large sea.

Asia, who took part in the singlehanded Europe 1 New Man STAR last year, had just come on deck to look at the conditions when the boat was struck by a huge wave. Skipper Helena Darvelid who at the time was sleeping in the weather bunk was catapulted out of it, rolled across the galley and ended up in a heap on the leeward side. On landing she looked up to see the horrified face of co-skipper Carol Archer who was screaming at her. Initially she assumed the rig had come down. "Carol shouted down 'OH MY GOD - Asia is in the water," Darvelid recalled. "Initially I was thinking - I can cope with that because she is still clipped on to the boat. However, I looked out and all I could see was a red dot disappearing in to the distance. It was the worst case scenario."

All the crew scambled on deck and the engine was switched on, but in the conditions attempting to steer a course directly to windward in an Open 60 proved a difficult manoeuvre, even with the engine running. Fortunately for Darvelid they were already sailing without the mainsail, so gybing round and heading back into the wind could be carried out quickly. It was also fortunate that the incident happened during daylight - if it had taken place at night, relocating Asia would have been almost impossible.

The crew remained calm while Darvelid gave instructions to each of the crew members. With Aimee Neale focusing on Asia; Frederique Brule and Archer prepared ropes and poles ready to retrieve her. "Getting close to her was difficult. We managed a couple of times to get right next to her, but the boat would accelerate and go away from her again. We must have tried about six or seven times before we finally got a line around her," said Darvelid.
"I knew that we would not be able to throw lines into the wind and so we had to get above Asia and fall down towards her, but this was also quite dangerous because we still had the engine running and the boat was slamming hard on the waves. We were all yelling, 'it's all right we are going to get you, keep swimming.' Eventually we got a line to her and she held on for dear life."

With only the staysail up, the boat was still reaching speeds of 10 knots, dragging Asia along behind the boat and making it impossible for the crew to pull her back on board. While the crew were struggling with Asia, Carol dashed forward to drop the sail. This dropped the boat speed down enough to enable the rest of the crew to heave her on to the boat. "It took four of us to drag Asia back onto the boat and she was so exhausted she just lay there while we were just so happy and relieved to have her back on board and our crew of five intact," recalled Darvelid.
She had been in the water 20 minutes and was extremely shaken and suffering from mild hypothermia.

Asia is now safely back on board the boat, she and the crew are recovering from this traumatic experience The girls have returned to the course, which was tactically designed to take them away from the worst of the storm. This is only one of many unfortunate incidents the girls have endured since starting the event back in St. Malo. During leg two, from Cuxhaven to Portsmouth, they were forced to deal with electrical, navigational, and engine problems.

Alphagraphics is now nearly 500-miles behind the leading boat, Sill. However, their course will take them further away from the finish until they are positioned well below the Azores High. Once there, the girls will make a tack to fetch in to Baltimore.