QC's son speaks about sea tragedy

By Paul McKillion
BBC Radio Ulster

Mr Thompson was on the yacht, the Avocet

The son of a County Down man who died in an accident while sailing across the Atlantic has been speaking about the family's ordeal.

John Thompson, a respected barrister and enthusiastic sailor from Carnalea near Bangor, was excited about his first Atlantic crossing from the Canary Islands to St Lucia in the Caribbean.

"He was just so excited in Las Palmas, he just wanted to get going," said his son Dan, who went with his father on the trip.

When the accident happened last month, the crew had been at sea for about a week and a half, and were within 1,000 miles of their destination.

We got hit by a wave that just threw my dad, who was sitting down, from one side of the boat to the other Dan Thompson

"We'd had a few rain squalls and wind squalls coming through the night before and a few electrical storms - nothing you can't handle but enough just to disturb the sea," said Dan, who skippers yachts for a living.

"We got hit by a wave that just threw my dad, who was sitting down, from one side of the boat to the other. He hit his head - we knew there was a problem. "

Dan described the 14 hours before they got help from a cruise liner as the "longest in my life".

The liner picked up his father and brought him to hospital in Barbados.

It hasn't affected me going out on the water, I think I'll enjoy it even more now because it's one of the places I can always be closest to him Dan Thompson

"My mother had flown down from St Lucia where she had been expecting us - the neurosurgeon then told us the prognosis wasn't good."

A memorial service will be held for John Thompson this Saturday.

Dan says he will remember his father best by continuing to sail.

"I think blaming someone or something doesn't work, I could point my finger at the sea, wind, the boat, but it's one of those things that is incredibly, horrifically unfortunate that we have no control over.

"It hasn't affected me going out on the water, I think I'll enjoy it even more now because it's one of the places I can always be closest to him."

Listen to a full interview with Dan Thompson on BBC Radio Ulster's Evening Extra from 1700 GMT.