Norwegian yachtsman Thomas Tangvald, who was en route from French Guiana to the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha, is lost at sea somewhere off the Amazon.
The 37-year-old boating enthusiast, who lost his mother to a pirate attack in the Philippines in 1979 and his father in a shipwreck off the Netherlands Antilles in 1991, set off on 4 March but never arrived at his destination.
His sister, Virginia Tangvald, said she hoped the American and French governments continue the search after the French Guiana Coast Guard called off its search last week.
Thomas, at 15 years old, was the sole survivor of the shipwreck that killed his father, Per, in 1991. Per started sailing round the world in 1959, when he was 25, and continued until the day he died. Thomas’s sister, Carmen, was also killed in the accident. His mother, Lydia, was shot dead by Filipino pirates when he was three years old.
Virginia said that their family has suffered many tragedies, but explained that when you set out on a “quest for freedom” to find your “true nature” there is no other way to live that does not feel like a tragedy. She added that was the legacy her father left behind.
She said the sea around the mouth of the Amazon River, where Thomas went missing, is treacherous because lots of detritus gets washed downstream.
Thomas had been planning to make Fernando de Noronha home and settle down with wife Christina and sons Lucio and Gaston. He wanted to continue working as a naval architect.