Adventurer rescued after whale collision

Press, 18 June 1979, Page 6

Adventurer rescued after whale collision

NZPA-Reuter Halifax An Englishman. Paul Parsons, trying to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a sailpowered rubber dinghy, was rescued by a Canadian fishing boat yesterday after he collided with a whale. A Canadian Coast Guard spokesman said Mr Parsons, who set out in his dinghy Puffa from Dartmouth. Nova Scotia, on Friday morning, hoping to reach Dartmouth, England, 6118 km away, was safe aboard the fishing boat Cape Pictou. There was no report of any injury to Mr Parsons, who is 30, the spokesman said. He added that a Coast Guard vessel was alongside the Cape Pictou, about 60

nautical miles south-west of Halifax, and the Englishman would probably be transferred to that vessel and returned to land The 52m Puffa had also! been taken aboard the Cape[ Pictou, the spokesman said.

I Mr Parsons radioed for ihelp on Saturday,, saying the I Puffa had been struck by a I whale, was taking water, and I had lost its rudder. | Mr Parsons had first I radioed that he was ‘ okay” | after the collision. Later he ' requested to be picked up because the collision had ripped up some of the Puffa’s i floorboards, a Coast Guard spokesman said. I Mr Parsons is a baggage handler for Air Canada at ' Heathrow Airport in London.