Four and a half months after his disappearance, the body of Francis, the 47-year-old fisherman who sank off the port of Granadilla while trying to launch a pot while his brother was guiding the Punta Abona, a ship belonging to the Fishermen’s Guild of San Miguel de Tajao.
Since June 20, family members, fishermen, authorities of Granadilla and Arico, neighbors and security forces, such as local police and civil guards, have not stopped searching by sea, land and air for Francis’s body, everything is, as his relatives affirm, “to give him a Christian burial and sleep with a clear conscience.”
That family perseverance has not had the desired fruit so far and it will be difficult for the body to be found, especially after so much time has passed. But at least it will not be due to the attempt, among others, of the renowned international ship rescuer Moisés Pires, a native of El Médano, who for a few months has been coordinating a team of divers that selflessly integrates the underwater search for Francis, from the port of Granadilla , where it fell into the sea, to the tip of Bocinegro, in Montaña Roja.
The results have been negative on the coast and in the exits of emissaries, but after hiring a side scan sonar, some unnatural objects were found, very close to where Francis tragically fell into the sea. After those images, Pires’ team and a Civil Guard GEAS zodiac, equipped by a Tragsa company robot, managed to locate a flattened-round pot 30 meters from the point where the fisherman’s track was lost. 101 meters deep. However, the robot could not find a trace of Francis’s body or clothing.
“In 15 days we hope to leave for the area with a Civil Guard patrol boat and try to remove that pot or any other, if the sea conditions allow us,” said Moisés Pires, who recalled that the robot can go down to 250 meters .
