via Daily Wire
German adventurer, Manfred Fritz Bajorat, 59, was discovered in his partially submerged yacht 50 miles off the coast of Barobo, Surigao del Sur in the Philippines by two fisherman this past weekend.
The captain was still sitting at his desk in the same spot where authorities believe he died while trying to radio for help.
He was last seen in the flesh in 2009 by a friend and fellow sailor named Dieter, who reported to Germany’s BILD newspaper that, “He was a very experienced sailor. I don’t believe he would have sailed into a storm. I believe the mast broke after Manfred was already dead.”
The captain’s body was taken to Butuan City for an autopsy. Authorities didn’t find any signs of foul play or evidence that anyone other than Bajorat had been on the boat.
A spokesman for the police believe he died of natural causes possibly of a heart attack. The hot temperatures, ocean winds, and dry salty air seem to have preserved the body of the 20-year sailing veteran.
His 40-foot yacht, named Sayo, was found to have clothes, tins of food, photo albums, and paperwork strewn about the cabin, which was how they identified him. The boat was eventually towed into the Barboro port.
Authorities are still trying to determine when he died and retrace the steps of his journey. He’s believed to have started his travels sometime after his marriage ended in 2008. His ex-wife, who had been his partner at sea, died of cancer two years later in 2010.
Bajorat wrote on an internet sailing forum, “Thirty years we’re been together on the same path. Then the power of the demons was stronger than the will to live. You’re gone. May your soul find its peace. Your Manfred.”
He is survived by his daughter Nina, who took to her dad’s love of the ocean and works as the captain of a freight vessel.
In his 20 years at sea, Manfred sailed more the half a million nautical miles.
A plaque found on the ship’s bulkhead reads, ”This is a swell ship for the skipper, but a hell ship for the crew.”
