January 2016: A joint operation involving the Guyana Defence Force Coastguard, the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) and the Guyana Police Force is currently underway to retrieve a boat that was spotted yesterday drifting approximately 150NM offshore Georgetown, with a dead man and a dog inside.

Published 8 years ago, updated 6 years ago

The operation was confirmed by Chief-of-Staff (CoS) of the Guyana Defence Force Brigadier General Mark Philips last evening. According to the CoS, a tanker vessel which was moving from Jamaica to Brazil observed the French-registered Yacht “Allegro” drifting with the tides out at sea. In the Yacht a dead man and a dog were spotted inside.

The Guyana Chronicle was told that the captain of the tanker sent a transmission which was picked up by the local coastguard who informed the relevant agencies. The captain of the tanker informed the coastguard that they could not stop as they had to continue along their journey, but did provide the reading of where the sighting was made. Using the information the GDF Skyvan conducted a flyover survey to confirm the information, which they did. The aircraft returned to the coast and a team from MARAD, the GDF and the GPF has since journeyed to the location via boat.

The operation will entail the securing of the body of the man and his dog as well as ensuring that the vessel is brought to shore, so that investigations can be conducted and the post-mortem performed on the remains of the man to determine the cause of death.

The GDF head did confirm too that the yacht is a French-registered one.

Demerera Waves source said from all accounts Guyana was not the yacht’s intended destination.