Incredible moment two exhausted sailors are plucked from the raging South Atlantic 1,450 miles from land after their hero Swiss captain made sure they were safely inside a life raft before going down with his ship

• Captain Benno Frey died saving his fellow crew mates
• The two men he saved were adrift for hours before they were picked up
• They are said to be incredibly distressed over Frey’s passing 

The heroic skipper of an ocean-going yacht went down with his vessel in a violent storm after first making sure his two crewmen were safely inside their emergency life raft.

Captain Benno Frey, 72, ran into a tempest with 60mph winds and 25ft-tall waves which battered his 54ft-long boat until it began taking on seawater and started sinking quickly on March 14. 

His modern yacht should have weathered the strong storm but it is believed to have struck a container washed off a cargo ship, which left a hole below the water line.

Benno, a Swiss national, and his crew members Brazilian Marcelo Osanai, 38, and American-Swiss national Balthasar Wyss, 52, desperately tried to keep it afloat.

But just after midnight, father-of-two Benno realised their situation was critical and set off an international distress Mayday alert that they were going down fast.

The trio stayed on board the stricken Nina Pope for a short time, until in an act of selfless heroism Benno launched the crew rescue life raft in darkness into the ocean.

He ordered Marcelo and Balthasar to unclip their safety lines and handed them a £350 tiny handheld Garmin satellite SOS transmitter and get in.

But before Benno could unclip his safety line and join them the boat suddenly went down taking him with it and his last action was to cast the inflatable raft with his crew on it free.

Their desperate SOS was picked up by the Maritime Safety Authority South Africa in Cape Town, 1450 miles east of their location which was the nearest landfall to the terrified shipwrecked survivors.

Adrift in mountainous seas sealed in the life raft Marcelo and Balthasar were at the mercy of the Atlantic as the high winds and crashing waves threatened to capsize them.

But unknown to them the MSASA in Cape Town had relayed their distress Mayday to the nearby giant super tanker Front Pollux which had diverted course for a daring rescue.

And in this incredible mobile phone footage shot from the deck of the 825 feet long crude oil carrier the vulnerable eight-foot by eight-foot life raft is seen located in heavy seas.

The thankful survivors feared the worst saying later that they felt finding them would be like ‘finding a needle in a haystack’ and that they owed their lives to the tiny £350 gadget.

The Garmin hand held satellite transmitter – less than the size of a packet of cigarettes – had been beaming out a signal that guided the 62,000 ton tanker to their exact position.

Both sailors can be seen looking out of their rescue inflatable up at the crew far above who had positioned their tanker to take the brunt of the storm and protect them in the lee.

The Front Pollux dropped a steel walkway half way down their vast hull then a crew member went down and dropped a rope ladder from that into the ocean for the survivors to grab.

The two thankful sailors who had paid to sail on the Nina Pope the 3600 miles from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Cape Town, South Africa, grabbed the lifeline knowing they were safe.

Despite being in the lee of the tanker now in calmer waters the exhausted sailors can be seen using the last of their energy climbing up the wooden slats of the 50ft swinging ladder.

Once on board the super tanker they were given warm clothing and hot drinks and medically examined but apart from exhaustion and shock were both otherwise uninjured.

Both of the rescued businessman who had taken sabbaticals from their high-powered jobs to fulfil a sailing dream are said to be ‘highly distressed’ at losing Benno.

A source on the Front Pollux said: ‘They saw the skipper Benno go down. It seems he could not get his safety line undone in time as the yacht went down very quickly.

‘If he had not cast the life raft adrift immediately it would have been dragged down to the bottom with the Nina Pope. Both the survivors have been finding it very hard to take in.

‘The South Atlantic is vast and in stormy seas with an 8m swell it is almost impossilbe to spot a tiny life raft but the SOS transmitter they had was what saved both their lives.

‘We had the signal and just had to follow it until we got in the vicinity and slowed the engines and scoured the area with binoculars until someone on the bridge spotted it.

‘That little bit of kit made all the difference out there’ he said.

Benno’s distraught ex-wife Beatrice, 60, from Roggwill in Switzerland said: ‘Although we parted after 11 years of marriage in 2019 we were still the very best of friends.

‘Benno had been sailing for 50 years and in 2000 he got his International Skippers Licence and had always wanted to sail the world and with his retirement his dream came true.

‘Benno lived his days on his beloved Nina Pope sailing the world and was living his dream. He was a very good man and had so many friends in every port he called in.

‘His children Tamara, 43, and Joel, 40, are as you can imagine taking it very badly. I have spoken to his crew but they are too upset to go into the full detail of exactly what happened.

‘It is a very difficult time for us all right now’ said food and nutrition expert Beatrice at her home in the Canton of Bern.

Benno’s two children are from a previous marriage and had both sailed with him many times.

Peter Millington who runs a news website on the British island colony of Tristan da Cunha revealed his friend Benno had called in twice whilst sailing across the South Atlantic.

Peter said: ‘We are a stopping off point between Brazil and Cape Town and Benno anchored on Monday last week and came on shore to get water and provisions.

‘We have a photo of him and Marcelo and Balthasar having a lunch here of lobster tails and potatoes with salad and they were using the wifi to talk to their friends and family.

‘Benno understood a storm was coming in but the harbour here is very small and not suitable for yachts and it is too dangerous to try and ride out a storm at anchor.

‘It was not the biggest of storms and Benno decided the safest way forward was to set sail and the three of them were waved off in their tender and we took a pic of them sailing away.

‘Tragically less than 48 hours later the Nina Pope and Benno were lost to the sea. His wife Beatrice emailed the island to ask if any of our boats could offer help in a rescue.

‘Unfortunately our fishing boats are inshore vessels and it was too far away. I saw the Mayday and followed the rescue and saw the Nina Pope’s signal disappear later on Wednesdy.

‘I feared the worst that she had sunk and sadly I was proved correct’ he said.

The Nina Pope had sailed 140 miles from Tristan da Cunha before she hit the container and was still 1450 miles from Cape Town when the crew abandoned ship into the Atlantic.

The Nina Pope had set off on February 27 for the three-week crossing with digital commerce expert Marcelo from Rio de Janeiro and hi-tech expert Balthasar as paying crew.

Married dad Balthasar who was originally from Basel, Switzerland, and now lives in Seattle, USA, had been advertising on Facebook to pay to crew on a yacht trip.

He said on it: ‘After 30 years of business (hi-tech) I would like to make my dream of crossing oceans and exploring remote places a reality on a sabbatical from work.

‘I have basic sailing experience and I am very interested in everything about sailing and navigation as I am considering buying my own sailing boat in the future.

‘I will pay my expenses and a contribution to the cost of sailing and do the chores!’.

A spokesman for the South African Maritime Safety Authority said: ‘After midnight last Wednesday a Swiss flagged sailing vessel the Nina Pope reported taking on water.

‘They had activated their emergency beacon close to the rescue point border of Uruguay and South Africa but we agreed to take on the search and co-ordinate rescue efforts.

‘The tanker Front Pollux diverted to the Mayday beacon and later Wednesday it reported finding the lift raft then signs of life in the raft and recovered two surviving crew members.

‘The Front Pollux reported that the skipper was lost at sea when the Nina Pope sunk and further reported they would be returning the two surviving crew to Cape Town.

‘SAMSA convey their deepest condolences to the family and friends of the deceased.

‘We also express our heartfelt gratitude to all Search & Rescue partners especially the crew of the Front Pollux for their valiant efforts in the very difficult rescue operation’ they said.

The Front Pollux anchored off Cape Town on Monday and the two survivors were transferred by the NSRI lifeboat to the shore where he MSASA greeted them.

Both sailors lost all their possessions on the yacht and emergency documents are being prepared by their embassies so they can return home to Brazil and the USA.

They declined to requests to be interviewed by the media.