Drunk Briton tries to row from Minorca to Majorca in stolen dinghy

A British tourist was rescued after 24 hours adrift at sea following the apparently drunken man's failed attempt to sail in a stolen dinghy from Minorca to Majorca to see a friend. The tourist, who has not been named, drifted on the waves without food and water for a day after allegedly stealing the inflatable Zodiac outside a restaurant in the port of Ciutadella, in the west of the island, on Friday.

Josep Anglada, a local fisherman, spotted him eight miles out to sea the following day - sunbathing in a pair of shorts with a makeshift sail made out of an oar and a piece of cloth. He demanded to be left alone and said in broken Spanish that he was heading to Majorca, another 35 miles away, to visit a friend, the fisherman said. Nonetheless, the fisherman raised the alarm, and coast guards rescued the castaway Briton. Authorities said on Monday that changing winds could have sent the amateur sailor the wrong way.



"He was lucky he was spotted when he was," said a spokesman for the rescue service. "The winds were changing and, without food and water, he could have come to a very sticky end. The direction he was heading when we picked him up, he'd have missed Majorca and ended up somewhere on the Spanish mainland near to Barcelona. "But, of course, the winds change constantly and, more likely than not, he'd have drifted aimlessly around the Mediterranean."

A worker at the marine club in Ciutadella, who asked not to be named, said: "We've heard the man had a few too many drinks in the port at lunchtime, saw the mountains of Majorca across the water with the clear skies, and decided to take someone else's boat to get him there. He apparently rowed out of the port. The Zodiac has a small engine but we're not sure if he didn't know how to start it or simply ran out of petrol."