World News for Students of English

29-08-2014 07:00

A man has been rescued from rough seas after attempting to sail from the UK to America in a dinghy.

The man, thought to be a Bulgarian national, was spotted in his 14-foot (4.2 metres) dinghy five miles off the coast of Dorset on Saturday when a rescue team came to help.

The RNLI lifeboat crew from Mudeford was called out at around 5 pm after a passing yachtsman noticed the dinghy’s skipper was seasick.

But the 30-year-old sailor wasn’t too happy about being rescued and refused help from the lifeboat for 45 minutes before the RNLI crew dragged him on to their boat and to shore where police and an ambulance were waiting.

The man had purchased the dinghy for £300 at Christchurch Harbour earlier that day and packed a bag of food including biscuits, hot dogs and beans, as well as a bag of clothes and a US visa for his voyage.

But he forgot a few vital things as he had no life jacket, the boat had no lights and his only navigational tool was a street map of Southampton.

Difficult words: dinghy (small boat), national (citizen), spot (see), RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution), skipper (captain), drag (to pull somebody roughly).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com