London to Auckland

Ultimate Ride Team Rescued by Greek Air force.

At c.1.30pm on 31st August Jeremy Burfoot, Travis Donoghue and Ivan Otulic were rescued by Greek Air force helicopter about 60km south east of Santorini in the Aegean Sea.

The three men set out at 5am from the island of Karpathos with the intention of making Santorini before a predicted worsening of the weather in the region.
By 8am they had made the half way point but the weather worsened and they found themselves riding into 60-70km per hour winds and battling 3-4m waves almost head on.

Burfoot said that progress was slowed to about 15km per hour and their Seadoos were taking immense punishment, often being completely submerged by waves.The machines were slowly taking on water as their forward speed was inadequate for the venturi bilge system to work well. Auxiliary bilge pumps that the team had installed all failed because of the extreme conditions. Eventually the first machine started having multiple problems because of the hull being full of water. While this was being dealt with, the second Seadoo succumbed to the same problems and the third was showing signs of distress.

At around 10.30am the team made the decision to set off their GME PLB (personal locater beacons) and waited for rescue.

They were pulled from the water by a Greek Air Force helicopter around 1.30pm with no injuries except cuts and bruises and sunburn.

Burfoot said that any suggestion that the Seadoos were to blame were totally incorrect. “No PWC (personal water craft) is designed for hours and hours of that sort of punishment. Under the circumstances I can’t speak highly enough about the handling and ride of the S3 Hull, especially given the weights of gear and equipment we were carrying.”

“The GME beacons were life savers”.
The new 406 GPS equiped beacons that are not much bigger than a mobile phone sent a GPS position accurate to within 10m direct to the Rescue Coordination Center in Wellington New Zealand.The RCC contacted the Greek authorities and the helicopter was directed straight to the three men.They were lifted to nearby Santorini, taken to hospital for a check up and then later discharged.

Burfoot said that the team would like to thank the Greek Air force team and the Coastguard team on Santorini for their professionalism and helpful and friendly attitude.

The men will remain in Santorini for the next few days to deal with formalities.They plan to continue their mission of promoting healthy living and early detection of cancer by other means.