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We apologize for the temporary disabling of the
Windjammer Bulletin Board. We believe that this URL
would be better used for posting official updates on the
progress of the search for S.V. Fantome's Crew. We
are very thankful and appreciative of all your well
wishes and prayers as we continue the search for our
friends, the crew of Fantome.

News for Immediate Release

Statement of Michael D. Burke, President of Operations, Windjammer Barefoot
Cruises on Tuesday, November 3rd, 1998. Press Conference on Missing Ship, S/V
Fantome.

Introduction: Windjammer Barefoot Cruises operates a fleet of passenger-carrying
Tall Ships including the 282-foot, 4-masted schooner, Fantome. Fantome’s
Summer/Fall itinerary for the last couple of years has been in the Belize and
Honduran Bay Island area. Last week, Hurricane Mitch hit that region, surprising
forecasters who had predicted the storm would take a Northerly track into the
Yucatan. Windjammer’s office lost contact with Fantome and her 31 crew members
late Tuesday afternoon when the storm moved onto its position. Here today to
discuss the events leading up to this situation and the search for Fantome and her
crew are:

Michael D. Burk - President of Operations, Windjammer Barefoot Cruises Captain
Duke Schneider - Safety Consultant (10 years). Trains crew in emergency
procedures.Ê Retired USCG Commander

Captain Stuart Larcombe - Former Fantome Captain

James Canty - Vice President Corporate Development

Lt. Commander Mark Woodring of the U.S. Coast Guard

ÊMichael D. Burke:

Good Morning. S/V Fantome was home ported in Omao, which is a small harbor just
South of Puerto Cortez in Honduras. Fantome embarked 100 passengers Sunday
afternoon for a 6 day cruise to Belize and the Barrier Reef. She had sailed this
itinerary for her last two Summer/Fall seasons including trips to the Honduran Bay
Islands.

Sunday the Captain and I discussed our options for avoiding the approaching
hurricane. We agreed to go directly to Belize City and discharge passengers and all
non-essential crew.

Our intentions were to go North past Cancun and Cozumel to get out of the area and
avoid the storm. This was really our only choice at the time since the land had us
locked in on two sides. Puerto Cortez, just West of Omoa, is the only harbor in the
area. It is open to the North and would not have provided any protection from a
North wind.

Fantome was boxed in a corner with the Yucatan peninsula to the west and
Honduras to the south.

Monday at 1130 the vessel arrived at Belize City after a rough crossing and
discharged her passengers who were taken to Miami on a charter flight arranged by
Windjammer. Ten crew were also put ashore.

As soon as possible after the passengers were ashore the vessel again got underway
making her way through the barrier reef and arriving in open water at approximately
1500 EST.

It was determined at this time that the idea of running North was no longer a safe
option because of the vessels speed and the forecast for the storm to strike the
Yucatan coast. There were already feeder bands of squalls reaching the beaches of
Cancun and Cozumel. The wind was from the NNE and forecasted to increase. The
ship did not have the speed to make the distance and out run the storm before it was
forecasted to reach the coast.

Belize was also in harms way. So, the only available option was for the ship to go SE
and seek shelter from the seas behind the island of Roatan. If you look at the map,
you will see Roatan is a long island running East to West. This would give Fantome
protection from the large swells produced by a storm such as Mitch.

The forecasted path of the storm was still WNW which would have taken it well
North of Roatan and the mainland of Honduras.

At 0500 Tuesday, Oct. 27 the Fantome arrived at the South shore of Roatan and
remained there until 1 pm.

She was experiencing wind from the WNW with large to moderate seas. The vessel
was tacking East to West in the lee of the island. The Captain and I talked many
times during the day. He reported that the ship was taking the weather find and that
he was finalizing his heavy weather preparations.

The 4am and the 7am position confirmed the storm continued its track in a westerly
direction. But, the 10am position of the storm showed an unexpected turn toward the
SE.

Fantome was experiencing strong winds from the WNW so it was impossible for him
to make any headway to the West away from the storm’s new path.

The 1pm position showed the storm’s center had jogged to the SW and was heading
straight for Roatan.

At 1:15pm the Captain and I agreed that we could not remain in the path of the
storm. Although the island provided protection from the seas the wind strength in
Mitch was so strong that it would have been impossible for the vessel to remain
stationary and not be blown south and driven ashore onto the Honduran coast.

We had only one choice and that was to run East to try to get to the Eastern
semicircle of the storm where the wind would shift to the WSW and eventually South
taking us away from land.

At 4pm Tuesday, Hurricane Mitch had again shifted direction. This time making a
course of due South of the 1pm position. The ship and the storm were on the same
longitude separated by 45 miles. The captain reported a change in the wind direction
from the WNW to due West.

We were approaching our objective of getting into the safer quadrant of the storm
and favorable wind direction, away from shore and away from the center of the
storm. At 4:30pm we lost satellite communication with the ship. They were 10 miles
SSE of Guanaja Island heading E at approximately 7 knots.

The storm’s path changed once again between 4pm and 7pm Tuesday night to the
SE or directly toward the path of the ship.

At 10pm that same evening, the storm’s forward motion stopped and it remained
stalled generally over the same are for the next two days.

Since that time we have attempted through every means possible to reestablish
contact with the ship. Ham radio operators in the area were very cooperative and
busy on our behalf.

We remained optimistic that the ship was afloat but disabled because the emergency
transponder which is either manually or automatically activated by saltwater never
transmitted a signal.

However, since Wednesday last week the US Coast Guard has thoroughly searched
the most probable areas and has concluded that the ship is not afloat in the area. It
was either out of the area or sunk.

They have since tighten up the search pattern in an attempt to find debris and other
clues to the fate of Fantome.

Windjammer has been in existence for 51 years. Fantome was our biggest ship for
over thirty of those years. We have six ships operating year round in the Eastern
Caribbean. Every year we are threatened by approaching storms and every year we
inevitable have to take evasive action to get out of harms way.

Up until now, our captains and our management team have a tremendous amount of
experience in developing successful strategies to avoid these storms as our track
record proves.

With Mitch and Fantome we were faced with circumstances that provided us with
very few viable options. Fantome had no where to run, and with all the forecasts
predicting the storm to turn toward the NW, we took the only reasonable course we
had available.

We are confident that we made the best decisions possible given the information
available at the time from the hurricane center at NOAA.

But doing everything right is no guarantee that the results are going to be successful.
Windjammer is a small company where our most important asset is our crew. In fact,
it is in large part the reason for our success. Many of the crew on the Fantome had
been with the Company for many many years. We work together like family. Many
of our passengers pick the ship they go on to be with some of their favorite crew
members.

This tragic accident has devastated our company. This is the worst thing that has
ever happened to our company.

We continue to have faith that these men were able to get into life rafts and are
adrift somewhere in the Caribbean sea.

The Coast Guard continues to search the area, and we will continue to charter
private aircraft, to cover area the guard is not covering.

Windjammer Barefoot Cruises, Ltd.
P.O. Box 190120, Miami Beach, FL 33119-0120
Reservations: 1-800-327-2601
Administration: (305) 672-6453 Fax: (305) 674-1219
E-mail: windbc@windjammer.com