It must a be a sad existence to be a solo sailor and have no one care enough to report you missing or try and make and contact about your well being.
www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/mummified-body-of-german-adventurer-found-inside-yacht-drifting-off-philippines/news-story/e6cd680732bfb61e6e2ca110323ed6c5
How horrible. The article mentioned that he had a daughter who was a freighter captain. You would have thought she'd have suspected something had gone wrong after not hearing from him since 2009!
I got the same story off Facebook. Bit better photos and info here.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3469044/Mummified-body-German-adventurer-vanished-inside-drifting-yacht-Philippines.html
We might have more follow up info on this story. At least some idea where the yacht was at the time this bloke pegged out. It might not be the owner that's dead either!
Way to go. That is a lot more pleasant than the embalming process the funeral industry uses. I would be more than happy with that ending!
R.I.P.
incredible !! must be alot of calm weather there !!!
i,m trying imagine staying seated like that in a gale , even if alive !!!!
Select to expand quotesurfershaneA said..
Way to go. That is a lot more pleasant than the embalming process the funeral industry uses. I would be more than happy with that ending!
R.I.P.
+ 1
For me a far better way than a old peoples home any day
Death is not always sad. Only sad when life is ended prematurely.
The repose of the guy at the chart table suggests he was still on the pace and putting his last fix on the chart.
Good on him. He lived his life to the full. R.I.P.
No, l beg to differ. Death is only a different dimension. I do not want anyone crying at my funeral.
There is nothing wrong with death. I would hate to live forever. We are not here for a long time, but for a good time!
Death is inevitable. Live with it!
Dwelling on it is sick, though.
Select to expand quotesirgallivant said..
No, l beg to differ. Death is only a different dimension. I do not want anyone crying at my funeral.
There is nothing wrong with death. I would hate to live forever. We are not here for a long time, but for a good time!
Death is inevitable. Live with it!
Dwelling on it is sick, though.
I realized when I was about 4 years old that that was the end result it pissed me off a little. But I guess Ive had lots of fun since then 
Yeah I'm in the not sad camp.
In the pictures there was tinned food and stuff. I'm guessing that he had a heart attack or maybe a stroke and was left incapacitated at the table but really sheesh looking at the pictures it looks like he just never woke up. Maybe he's the ultimate lucky bugger who died peacefully doing what he wanted.
Introduced his daughter to the sea, what better gift to a child than that?
Sounded like a good sailor & person, shame it ended 30 years too soon for him.
Some more info down the page here. As usual we are suffering poor media.
www.clipperroundtheworld.com/news/article/race-8-day-3--fleet-blasting-up-waves-the-size-of-houses
The saddest thing in this story is how alone in the world he was to have no one miss him that long. 
given the mayhem on board dismasted etc....drifting for months.
At the very end of the clip there is a shot near the cockpit door, two of the sheets are nicely coiled??
how could they stay like that?
Many years ago before Internet and mobile I was transitting through iHorta Azzores met a guy about mid 70s sailing on his own.
He was on a 40ft steel yacht single handed, I questioned him why .
Turns out he was in a nursing home in the U.K. Discharged himself jumped on his yacht (obviously an old salt)
followed the trades south.
Questioning him ,why go alone ,answer he doesn't want anyone to feel responsible for him and doesn't want to die in a nursing home .
He leaves port sails for 25 days sails around the Atlantic catch a fish every couple of days no Destination Just follows the breeze then aims for closest land after 25 days at sea aims for land ,picks up his pension check ,carton of beer ,stocks up with water and some food then bobs about the ocean.
I totally admire him ,just think about it what a way to go ,saw my parents die in Nursing home definetly not the way to lose 40yrs of assets.
What do think???????
Select to expand quotespiggie said..
Many years ago before Internet and mobile I was transitting through iHorta Azzores met a guy about mid 70s sailing on his own.
He was on a 40ft steel yacht single handed, I questioned him why .
Turns out he was in a nursing home in the U.K. Discharged himself jumped on his yacht (obviously an old salt)
followed the trades south.
Questioning him ,why go alone ,answer he doesn't want anyone to feel responsible for him and doesn't want to die in a nursing home .
He leaves port sails for 25 days sails around the Atlantic catch a fish every couple of days no Destination Just follows the breeze then aims for closest land after 25 days at sea aims for land ,picks up his pension check ,carton of beer ,stocks up with water and some food then bobs about the ocean.
I totally admire him ,just think about it what a way to go ,saw my parents die in Nursing home definetly not the way to lose 40yrs of assets.
What do think???????
Totes understand Spiggie. It probably takes a stint in a nursing home to know there's more to life
than sitting around watching everybody to see who's going to shuffle off their mortal coil next.
Select to expand quotesamsturdy said..spiggie said..
Many years ago before Internet and mobile I was transitting through iHorta Azzores met a guy about mid 70s sailing on his own.
He was on a 40ft steel yacht single handed, I questioned him why .
Turns out he was in a nursing home in the U.K. Discharged himself jumped on his yacht (obviously an old salt)
followed the trades south.
Questioning him ,why go alone ,answer he doesn't want anyone to feel responsible for him and doesn't want to die in a nursing home .
He leaves port sails for 25 days sails around the Atlantic catch a fish every couple of days no Destination Just follows the breeze then aims for closest land after 25 days at sea aims for land ,picks up his pension check ,carton of beer ,stocks up with water and some food then bobs about the ocean.
I totally admire him ,just think about it what a way to go ,saw my parents die in Nursing home definetly not the way to lose 40yrs of assets.
What do think???????
Totes understand Spiggie. It probably takes a stint in a nursing home to know there's more to life
than sitting around watching everybody to see who's going to shuffle off their mortal coil next.
Basically that's what I have in mind
Select to expand quotenods said..
given the mayhem on board dismasted etc....drifting for months.
At the very end of the clip there is a shot near the cockpit door, two of the sheets are nicely coiled??
how could they stay like that?
Yeah, almost looks like the clipper wasn't the first to visit,,, neatly coiled sheets?? Maybe an earlier visiting sailor fidgeting whilst pondering the thoughts of what to do next. "Can not help here,,,, best get on my way".
Select to expand quoteMcNaughtical said..
The saddest thing in this story is how alone in the world he was to have no one miss him that long.
I wouldn't dwell on that McN, I bet there would be at least a few other sailors who kept in regular (maybe even only every 6 or 12 months)contact or when they next meet in port type thing. Even the most reclusive ocean wanderers would have such a type of network of likeminded friends who support & keep in contact with each other I reckon.
And maybe he successfully conditioned his family back in Germany to not worry about him if they hadn't heard from him for a few months or even years, knowing that he was off living his life, would have been a weight of theirs & his shoulders.
Sad he was only 59.
Jolene,
I have sheets coiled like that and they get stiff and set in the sun so don't move much, reckon that's whats going on there.
Select to expand quoteMcNaughtical said.. The saddest thing in this story is how alone in the world he was to have no one miss him that long.
WE are all like that with in a 100 years . Just enjoy the ride Mc Nautical
Select to expand quotenswsailor said..
Jolene,
I have sheets coiled like that and they get stiff and set in the sun so don't move much, reckon that's whats going on there.
You may be right nswsailor ,, my comment is reflected from my gut as to what I may do if I came across such a situation.
Given that to demast the boat it has been at an angle around 90 deg or more, and then returned, the ropes seem to have all come back nicely - just seems odd.
Select to expand quotenods said...
Given that to demast the boat it has been at an angle around 90 deg or more, and then returned, the ropes seem to have all come back nicely - just seems odd.
There is something fishy here. It just seems too neat and tidy. If it had been like this for a long time there would be mould growing.
Could it be a photoshopped set up? I note the clipper video didn't go below so we can't see the body.
Agree....all seems very, very dodgy to me.
Where's the rig? Or remnants of? Why didn't it punch a hole in the hull when it came down and was swinging around for goodness' knows how long??
How on earth did this boat not go aground somewhere in all those years?
I don't believe the mummification bizzo either. Not for a minute! Tropical area where the boat was found...hardly conducive to the process.
Too many odd things in one small area...mmm 
I can imagine a scenario where there was a rigging fitting failure in relatively mild conditions. Skipper runs around like mad clearing the rig away, gets a heart attack, sits down to rest or call for help, and he is gone.....
http://www.sail-world.com/Australia/Clipper-Yacht-Race---Clarification-about-finding-of-dead-sailor-+Video/142919
www.pbo.co.uk/news/mummified-sailor-clipper-race-statement-27840
yachtboatnews.com/full-details-of-dead-skipper-discovery/
I include these three sites even though they all carry nearly the same story they all do have a slight variance to provide a more concise view of the situation. From one of the sites this, "One of the crew swam out and boarded the Sayo yacht, where the sole occupant was unfortunately found dead, in a state of advanced decomposition" . Hardly mummified I think, with the humidity and temperature in that part of the world, mumification as Selkie said is very unlikely.
650nm east of Manilla puts him about half way between Guam and the Phillipines and if you overlay the air current and sea currents on the
earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/orthographic=-234.57,11.06,1821 .. map then the boat should have made landfall somewhere in the Phillipines.
Select to expand quoteYara said..
I can imagine a scenario where there was a rigging fitting failure in relatively mild conditions. Skipper runs around like mad clearing the rig away, gets a heart attack, sits down to rest or call for help, and he is gone.....
That sums it up pretty well. I would also think that due to the lack of insects and bugs found out in the ocean, a body may decompose very differently to how it would on land.
