Mystery surrounds the whereabouts of a sailor who set out from Newlyn three months ago to fulfil a lifelong dream to sail single handedly round the world.David Cartwright, 53, left Newlyn in the 27ft steel-built Dutch sloop Colros three days before Christmas, heading towards Madeira.

Family and friends expected to hear from him by cell phone within a month before he then sailed across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal and on to Southern California where his sister, Barbara Smith, lives.

Barbara has contacted The Cornishman, saying that David, a boatbuilder from Suffolk, left the UK in a short weather window between the series of gales which has swept up the South West approaches this winter.

Barbara says: "David was desperate to get away, having been held up by the bad weather for a few weeks.

"The biggest problem is that he presumably left without his ham radio working with his computer and so couldn't send any e-mails or position reports.

"We do not know if he is able to receive any messages or transmit verbally.

"Because of this, we have no idea of his progress through any part of the journey. We do not know if he can hear messages transmitted to him.

"The Boatwatch network has tried to contact him via his ham radio but get no response from his callsign (m0syc). Even if he can hear messages, we don't know if he can transmit, so might be out there hearing the messages but not being able to respond.

"Because of this we have no idea what route he was following, what speed he was travelling or what weather he was experiencing.

"Neither do we know if he has lost his mast which would put his radio out of action anyway, but I assume that the radio just wasn't working.

"His less than satisfactory radio set up was not clear to us before he left, but we all trusted his ability, sailing experience, resourcefulness, physical fitness and knowledge of the boat and weather to see him through."

Two weeks ago Falmouth Coastguard put out the word to all relevant shipping and ports inquiring if he'd been seen but so far no one has heard anything.

article copyright THE CORNISHMAN 

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