Heart-stopping tale of nighttime incident

In this extract from Susan Smillie’s book, The Half Bird, she describes, while sailing her Nicholson 26 Isean on the Mediterranean Sea, an incident with a boat overloaded with African migrants on a dark night:

Isean and I were 40 miles east of Alicante, equidistant from mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands, flying along under the moon at 0400. The constellations were at their brightest and best, Ursa Major keeping us on course, and I was excited to be on my first solo night passage offshore.

I was tired – I’d been awake since seven the previous morning – but who needed sleep! We were over halfway to Ibiza where the water is crystal clear. Conditions were great, a strong wind behind, big waves pushing us fast, right on course. For once, everything aligned.

Then, out of the blue, life, in its habitual way, interrupted with other plans. A radio call on Ch16. The one you dread at sea. ‘Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. Man overboard.’ – Full report