GROUNDED

ALL hopes of lifting the yacht John Player over the sand bank on which she grounded off Puerto Portals in the early hours of yesterday were fading fast at going to press last night. A lone tug with a rope attached to her bow, battled all day to pull John Player free, but was forced to call in the assistance of a second tug late yesterday afternoon, but no sooner had a second rope been attached to the stern, the bow rope snapped, bringing a swift end to yesterday's salvage operation. The yacht, which had sailed to Majorca from Thailand for an advertisement shoot, had run aground overnight in heavy seas which only served to push her further back towards the beach as the tugs chugged away at full throttle to refloat her off the sand bank. Large crowds gathered throughout the day to watch the operation.
Ironically, the advertisement film crew last week had been complaining about the lack of bad weather which they needed for the ad.
However, the bad weather finally arrived, only to ground the yacht with its crew of six on board.
Fortunately though, the film shoot had just been completed.