In about three weeks the yacht Finnegan will have completed a circumnavigation of the globe - but its owner will not be on it.
|||Cape Town - In roughly three weeks the yacht Finnegan will arrive in Cape Town and complete a circumnavigation of the globe - but its owner, Sean Terry, will not be on it to realise his lifelong dream.
Terry, 48, who grew up in Cape Town and has South African and British passports, went missing nearly a year ago en route to Madagascar on his yacht.
He had been with Stefan Pokorny, of Austria, when he allegedly fell overboard.
Pokorny, who arrived alone on the yacht in Coetivy Island near the Seychelles on June 25, was subsequently charged in a Seychelles court with two counts relating to negligence.
But authorities there withdrew the case against him.
On Wednesday Terry’s sister, Maria Philip, said her brother’s yacht, which had remained in the Seychelles for nearly a year, was on its way back to Cape Town.
She said it was expected to arrive here in two or three weeks. Three of Terry’s siblings had travelled to the Seychelles last month to get it released.
The yacht, which is being skippered by John Titterton with crew member Che Overmeyer, who are both from Cape Town, is in Durban.
In a statement Terry’s family said: “We knew it was going to be an emotional experience for us all, but our first reaction, once we got inside, was complete shock. She was in a terrible mess and many items had been stolen.”
Philip said two of Terry’s laptops and his camera had gone missing from the yacht.
However, Seychelles police managed to find the camera and one of the laptops, an old one that Terry had not used for a while. These items had been returned to his family. “The crucial laptop is still missing,” Philip said.
Addressing the probe into Terry’s disappearance, the family’s statement said: “There is still very little known about what may have happened the night Terry is believed to have gone overboard while sailing the final leg of his lifelong dream across the world.”
On Wednesday Philip said South African authorities had taken over the investigation from the Seychelles police, but they were still waiting for the case docket to be sent to them.
She said provincial police commissioner Arno Lamoer had sent the family a letter saying local police had made numerous requests through Interpol to the Seychelles police, asking for the information they needed.
“It’s frustrating. We’ve never seen anything,” Philip said.
Despite the lag in progress in the case, she said her family would not give up.
“We’ll keep at it,” Philip said.
Terry’s family had not held a memorial service for him, but planned to hold a function in memory of him next month.
caryn.dolley@inl.co.za
Cape Times
