Mummified body of German adventurer is found inside yacht drifting off the Philippines

dailymail.co.uk ^ | Feb. 29, 2016 | y ALLAN HALL and GIANLUCA MEZZOFIORE

[cloudmountain]

Looks like the boat has been rolled at least once. Mast and verything on deck destroyed. The Jenneau 44 is a pretty nice boat, we’ve bareboated one in the Virgin Islands, but I don’t think I’d single-hand one in the Pacific. Not meant to be ocean cruisers, really. RIP sir

All you say is true.
You would never "single-hand" one because you have more brains. You're still here. Goes to show.

Yes, R.I.P. He's with his creator now, I hope.

[fini]

Do satellite phones work all over the world? If so, why would anyone go alone without one? They aren’t that big and the cost is minimal. Admittedly, the last one I used was 10 years ago, but the cost was $1 per minute. If you index it for inflation, it is cheaper than calling long distance in the early 70s- $.25/minute.

[nascarnation]

Maybe he didn’t want to be answering all the Clinton fund raising phone calls?

[Conan the Librarian]

It’s the water that bothers me. The guy should have just decomposed, not dried out. The article said something about dry ocean air, but, water in the boat just sits there.

We’ve had quite a mold problem this winter.

As for the photos, that boat has been through the wringer that’s for sure.

Long before we bought her, our boat was beached during Katrina. The guys who bought it fixed her up beautifully. I hope it didn’t look like that when they were through.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

My dad would say the broken elbow was bad luck. Not having a first aid kit or a way to get further medical help would have turned it into an "adventure".

[IncPen]

ping

[Procyon]

Iridium satellite phones cost around $1000. A $49/month gives you 10 voice minutes or calls @$4.90/minute. A $99/month plan gives you 100 minutes @ $0.49/minute. The phone would have done him no good if he suffered a sudden heart attack. He died where he sat. I'm guessing he survived the dismasting but over exerted himself in recovering from the incident. He may have jury-rigged an antenna for the HF or VHF radio that he was using.

I spent two years blue water (ocean) cruising. If you think a radio gives you peace-of-mind you are a fool. A thousand miles at sea, you are on your own, particularly if you are sailing single-handed.

[Daffynition]

Well, like Steve Fossett, he died doing what he loved. Rest his soul.

[JimRed]

This is the mummified body of a German adventurer who was found dead drifting on his abandoned yacht...

Does not appear that he abandoned his yacht...derelict might be a better choice of words.

[VTenigma]

Post of the week!

[cyclotic]

Yep.

We did.

We had a large triangle bandage but one of the boys fashioned a sling from a bandanna and paracord.

We thought it was just a bad bruise so didn’t get treatment till the next night when we got home. Not tremendous pain and initial treatment is just a sling anyway.

I lead a trail life USA troop and my boys like the saying about not an adventure. My take is that you quickly forget all the easy, clean camp outs, but that one where we backpacked 13 miles in the rain, or the 15 mile canoe trip in a headwind so strong it blew one of our boats over, that was an adventure!

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

That comment may have been about the automatic Facebook "It's Manfred's Birthday" messages, not an actual contact initiated by the deceased.

You could be correct. I hadn't thought of that. Thanks.

[sheana]

My next door neighbor at the marina has a Jeanneau. They are nice boats but definitely not blue water cruisers. Great for short hops.

[Buttons12]

Too weird indeed. Words like mummified and abandoned must mean something else where this was written.
Happened in a tropical climate, too. Before mummification a body decomposes and in the heat may actually explode. That body doesn’t look at all like it should. Photoshopping out the details may have occurred, but still — he’s sitting and his head’s still attached. At sea it should have been flopping around a lot and fallen off.
So...not buying this story as written.

[Trumpinator]

Salt water - salt acts as a dehydrator. It’s one of the ingredients of ancient mummification. They would bury the body in salt first.

[b4its2late]

Probably trying to get a better deal out of his cable company and died while waiting for the customer service rep in Germany to find someone who actually spoke German.

[Oztrich Boy]

He apparently departed São Vicente brazil 28/01/2012.

So alive mid 2012 at earliest

[SunkenCiv]

Probably get a good deal on the boat, a fixer-upper, but cheap.

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