A search operation has
been launched for two sailors who went missing onboard their 47ft yacht in the
Caribbean on Saturday.

Arthur Alleyne, 63,
and Sharon Went-Alleyne, 59, who is from Telford in Shropshire, had been
sailing from their home in St Lucia to Barbados when contact was lost.

Martinique and Barbados authorities have mounted air and sea search operations in a
bid to find the pair and their missing yacht Serenity.

It’s believed that they
had engine trouble and had lost power following a storm.

Children of the couple
are appealing for anyone in the surrounding area with access to a vessel or
light aircraft to join the search as the yacht may be drifting.

Posting on her
Facebook page, Tao Alleyne said her father had been at the helm of the yacht
when they were last heard from.

“Last contact was 2pm
Saturday afternoon,” she wrote. “But a strange voicemail came into one of the
dock’s phones at 3.15pm Sunday.

“In that voicemail,
there was the sound of wind blowing and water lapping, and faintly the voices
of the two mentioned, but their words could not be made out. We don’t know if
they were in distress at that time.

“We believe the boat
had engine trouble and they’ve lost power. No one has been able to raise them
on VHF, sadly their only form of comm.

“They both have
iPhones and we have explored their GPS option also, sadly, it only works if the
phones are on, which they are not.”

Search and rescue
planes have been scouring the north coast of Martinique to the south coast of
Barbados since Sunday evening but have so far been unable to find anything.

The yacht is described
as a 47ft fibreglass sloop with a white hull, teak deck and a light blue
bimini.