Search teams are looking for a 66-year-old Spanish businessman who has been missing since last Tuesday, after he fell overboard from his sailboat while sailing between Sicily and Greece, leaving his wife alone and adrift for three days before she managed to call for help.
The man, identified as Juan José Mutilva Obregón, had taken early retirement and was spending much of his time traveling with his wife aboard their boat, according to his son, Sergio, who spoke to Spanish newspaper El Mundo.
"For the past few months they had left everyday life behind and were traveling the world. They were constantly in Italy, France, Greece," he said.
The couple had set sail from Syracuse, Sicily, bound for Pylos, Greece, on Monday.
According to their son, Mr. Mutilva had just caught a tuna and was cleaning it Tuesday morning when he slipped, likely on fish blood, and fell into the sea.
"My mother heard him shout, 'Mentxu, Mentxu, cut the engine,' but she didn't know how to react," Sergio said. "She froze, and the boat kept drifting further away."
Over the following three days, Mr. Mutilva's wife, Carmen, tried repeatedly to reach emergency services but had no signal.
On Friday, she finally regained signal and contacted a friend experienced in sailing, who alerted Spain's Maritime Rescue Service, which relayed the alert to Italian and Greek authorities.
The Hellenic Coast Guard said the French-flagged sailboat was located adrift roughly 18 nautical miles off Pylos.
Two Coast Guard patrol boats, a land patrol unit and the fishing vessel Ioanna-Marina responded.
The 67-year-old woman was found in good health, and the sailboat was safely escorted into Pylos marina.