Sailor Rescued after Spending a Night on an Empty Barge in the IJsselmeer

A sailor who fell overboard was rescued this morning after spending a whole night on a barge in the IJsselmeer. The man had to swim for hours to get there. The Royal Dutch Rescue Society (KNRM) speaks of a miraculous situation.

The man had left Lelystad yesterday and at one point got into the water. It is unclear what caused the sailor to get into trouble. Because his catamaran was rapidly moving away from him, he decided to swim to a barge, a barge without a crew. He waited there all night for help, says the KNRM.

This morning around 8.30 am the empty catamaran was discovered near Urk. The coastguard then called in the KNRM. After a search, the man was found in fairly good health, writes Broadcasting Flevoland.

Teun Molenaar of the KNRM in Urk thinks it’s very special that it ended like this. “If you go overboard last night, have to swim for hours and then spend a whole night on a barge like this, you could go into hypothermia or shock,” he says.

“So much can happen. That this gentleman was still able to walk independently with a heating blanket on the scaffolding, I call it amazing. Especially because it can turn out very differently, we saw that a few days ago.”

Molenaar is referring to the body that was found yesterday in the IJsselmeer. It concerns the missing sailor who went overboard the day before after being hit by a boom. It concerns a 55-year-old man from Germany.