Four fishermen headed out to sea some 13 days ago to help another vessel that was in distress. But now, they have been reported missing and their families remain hopeful that they are still alive.
Twenty-six-year old Gweneth Ashby, the wife of the boat captain, Worrin Yipsam, told the News Room on Tuesday that the coastguards started searching for the missing fishermen four days after they went out to sea.
Yipsam left his sea dam, Herstelling, East Bank Demarara home on November 16 and joined Cecil Persaud, Vickram Singh and Hazrat Razack to take a battery to another boat that sent out a distress signal.
They were expected to return the following day but to date, no one has heard or seen them. The Red Snapper boat they left to assist has since returned and those men said they never met or saw Yipsam and his team.
“He was supposed to return by Friday afternoon to Saturday (November 18) morning but he didn’t come back.
“When we didn’t see them back Saturday, we made contact with the boss man’s relative and he told us that they are coming back in and would meet Monday morning. Then on Tuesday (November 21) the boss come he self and tell me what happened and that he send out a boat to look for them.
“It happens that the boat didn’t find them either and on Thursday (November 23), the Red Snapper come in and said they didn’t know my husband was going there and they never saw him,” Ashby said.
Ashby said after the boat did not return, coast guards were alerted and a search party was sent out.
The woman and Yipsam have been in a relationship for 11 years and he is the main breadwinner for their home. The couple has three children of ages 2, 6 and 9.
“I am not working and we have three children and right now it’s not easy because my children didn’t go to school for two days because we just keep studying and hoping that my husband returns safe.
“It’s not easy because every day these children asking for their father because they know he didn’t go out to work, they know he tell them that he coming back,” the distraught wife said.
The family is currently squatting along the sea reserve at Herstelling but Ashby said her husband was saving up to build a house at Little Diamond where they were allocated a house lot.
She is hopeful that the authorities will continue to search and that her husband will return safe.
