World News for Students of English

10-04-2014 07:00

“Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! We have a man overboard.”

These chilling cries for help were called out in the early hours of Monday morning, as a British man was rescued from the Pacific Ocean, after falling overboard during the World Clipper Race.

Andrew Taylor, from London, was changing a sail with a fellow crew member when he went over the side and was dunked into the ice-cold water.

After being swept away from the yacht by high winds, he spent about one and a half hours in the Pacific before he was plucked from the ocean by his team-mates.

Speaking back on board the boat Andrew, who is being treated for shock and hypothermia, said he feared the crew would not be able to find him.

“I didn’t know if you were looking for me or not. I didn’t know if you’d see me.”

“Didn’t you hear Shane shout?”

“No, I heard nothing. And then I saw somebody at the mast. Initially, I thought it was a good thing because I knew you were looking for me, and then I realised that it might be a bad thing because it meant you didn’t know where I was.”

The terrifying incident happened during race 10 in the 16th stage of the Round the World Race, currently racing to San Francisco from Qingdao in China.

Difficult words: clipper (fast sailing ship), sail (large piece of strong cloth fixed onto a boat), dunk (fall into the water), pluck (pick up), mast (tall upright piece of wood which carries a sail), initially (in the beginning).

Source: www.itn.co.uk