kiki at sea yacht

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Kiki on the River is proud to introduce our new yachting experience, Kiki at Sea. While we love serving our famous Greek dishes at the beloved riverfront location of Kiki on The River, there’s something really special about having our food served while cruising by all of Miami’s best sights. We’ve always wanted to offer a unique way for people to experience Kiki and we’re pleased that Kiki at Sea makes this possible.

About Kiki at Sea

4 Hour Charter

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6 Hour Charter

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Liquor and Dining Packages Available per Request Contact: [email protected] +1-(787)-599-7567

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The yacht life: Kiki at Sea takes diners on a Greek-flavored cruise with spectacular views of the Magic City

Kiki on the River Restaurant is using the river how it’s meant to be used … by letting you go with the flow on its custom-designed Kiki at Sea yacht. They want you to taste the yacht life — because someone has to live it.

Drake (singing): “Kiki, do you love me?”

Drake might have coined the question, “Kiki, do you love me?” But MIA’s Kiki on the River proves there’s love for Greek food on the water.

Caroline McDonald, Director of Events and Sales, Kiki on the River: “Kiki on the River is extremely well-known, not only because we really provide the essence of being in the Greek islands, but we also have one of the most famous parties. We have live entertainment, we have dancers.”

So why not move the Kiki way to the way of the sea?

Caroline McDonald: “Kiki at Sea is a very exciting project that we just came up with, because we really want to extend the experience from Kiki onto the water.”

You can lounge, party and say, “Aye aye, captain” on this 70-foot Montecarlo yacht.

Caroline McDonald: “You can charter the boat for 4, 6 and 8 hours. Our captain will make sure to take you to all the most amazing views. We’ll provide you also with a phenomenal tour, and our Stew will be waiting on you hand and foot with Champagne and delicious cuisine.”

You can custom select your food, from a tomato salad, octopus, to a Greek spread.

Plus dessert. But two chilled Champagne bottles always come with the deal.

Caroline McDonald: “All of our charters include water toys. Our goal during this charter is for you to really relax. And really receive exceptional experience.”

Yes, you can get all the angles inside the four cabins and bathrooms … or at the star bridge with a retractable roof. You know, in case you want to look up.

Loretta Alegria: “Oh, my God, it was such a great time being out at sea and having amazing food and Champagne, and being out with my girlfriends. We were dancing and girl talk and everything else that comes with a good time.”

Prices for a 4-hour cruise start at $5,000.

FOR MORE INFO: Kiki on the River 450 NW North River Drive Miami, FL 33128 786-502-3243 kikiontheriver.com

Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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• Dine in Style and Enjoy the Ride with Kiki at…

Dine in Style and Enjoy the Ride with Kiki at Sea Delightful Greek Cuisine

• August 8, 2023
• 3 minute read

Guests Can Charter The 70-Foot Yacht For Half and Full-Day

Dining at Sea feels more delicious and decadent, especially with popular dishes from Kiki on the River’s world-renowned Mediterranean menu. Chef Steve Rhee’s family-style highlights include Greek Spreads & Dips, Greek Tomato Salad, Lobster Salad, Chicken Skewers, Grilled Octopus, Grilled Whole Fish, Lamb Chops and Lobster Pasta. End sweetly with Baklava, Greek Yogurt, or a Fresh Fruit Platter.

Outdoor enthusiasts will want to reserve aquatic toys and inflatables spanning jet skis, a water trampoline, a blowup platform, an electric surfboard, eFoil, paddleboards, a floating lounge, or a Funboy cabana. A hydraulic swim platform makes it easy to engage in watersports from the aft of the yacht. Or opt for a more relaxing day with massages on board.

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Modern Greek Restaurant

Inspired by life on the miami river.

INTRODUCTION

A Greek restaurant in Miami featuring modern Greek cuisine and an authentic Mediterranean island-inspired riverfront setting complete with 150 feet dock up space. Kiki on The River – built at the site of one of Miami’s original fish markets – pays homage to its rustic origins of the much buzzed about River. Book a table at the best restaurant on the Miami River.

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EXECUTIVE CHEF STEVE RHEE

One of the area’s most respected chefs, has been at the helm of beloved Miami hotspot Kiki on The River since its opening. With a passion for seafood in fresh and authentic presentations, Chef Rhee’s award-winning Greek cuisine has been heralded in multiple national publications. With an esteemed pedigree that includes stints at in Las Vegas and California’s top kitchens, Chef Rhee is an industry leader in the realms of sustainable seafood sourcing, green initiatives and a “guest first” philosophy.

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• September 2022

Why Waterfront Dining Is The Best Choice

If you’re looking for a special place to take your significant other on a date or celebrate special occasions by the water, a restaurant with a view is an ideal choice. Waterfront dining is the epitome of romance and is guaranteed to be one of your most treasured memories together. A number of Miami restaurants […]

• August 2022

How A Mouthwatering Seafood Tower Is Built

Although the seafood tower at trendy restaurants tends to be the center of attention, you might be surprised to learn that it’s not too difficult to recreate this mouthwatering attraction in your own kitchen. Getting ready for your guests is all about picking out the right supplies and putting them together flawlessly. You’re always welcome […]

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British tycoon Mike Lynch and daughter among missing at sea with one dead after yacht sinks in Italy

British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter are among six tourists missing after his luxury yacht capsized in stormy weather and sank off the coast of Sicily .

The 56-metre Bayesian , which was docked off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo, capsized shortly before 5am when the area was hit by a tornado , with 15 guests rescued from the water.

It has been reported that four of the missing passengers are British and two are American, while one body has been recovered.

Salvatore Cocina, director general of Sicily’s civil protection agency, told the BBC that 18-year-old Hannah Lynch was confirmed to be missing with her father, along with the yacht’s chef, Ricardo Thomas.

At the time it sank, the British-flagged superyacht was carrying 10 crew members and 12 passengers, with Mr Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares among those rescued, local media has reported.

Among those to be saved is Charlotte Golunski and her husband James Emsley, who had been on board with their one-year-old daughter Sofia when the storm began to violently sway the boat.

She said: “It was the end of the world and my husband and I were struggling to stand up.”

As the yacht sank, the family were thrown into the water. “For two seconds, I lost my daughter in the sea, then quickly hugged her amid the fury of the waves.”

“I held her afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning,” she added. ‘It was all dark. In the water, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I screamed for help but all I could hear around me was the screams of others.”

Ms Golunski, Mr Emsley and Sofia are all being treated in hospital.

An Italian doctor at the paediatric hospital in Palermo who treated the family told local media: “She told me that while they were sleeping, at a certain point the yacht overturned due to the tornado, and they found themselves in the water.

“Some of them immediately managed to get onto the lifeboat. And some, evidently, didn’t make it.”

Karsten Borner, captain of a nearby boat said that his crew took on board some survivors who were on a life raft, including three who were seriously injured.

Fisherman Francesco Cefalu said he sailed from the shore to the scene after seeing a flare at about 4.30am but by the time he arrived, Bayesian had already sunk, with only items such as cushions and wood floating in the water.

He added: “I think they are inside, all the missing people.”

Salvo Cocina of Sicily’s civil protection agency said: “They were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

One anonymous witness told Rai News: “That boat was all lit up. At about 4.30 in the morning, it was gone. A beautiful boat where there had been a party. A normal holiday spent happily at sea turned into a tragedy.

“The boat was not far from the port. It took very little to raise the anchor and head for the port. Evidently, they were surprised by the storm that suddenly hit and they were unable to avoid sinking.”

The vessel is understood to have belonged to Mr Lynch and was registered in a company under his wife’s name. The 59-year-old founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, and was made an OBE for services to enterprise 10 years later.

In June, he was cleared of conducting a massive fraud relating to an $11bn (£8.64bn) sale to US company Hewlett Packard, a deal which netted him £800m but kicked off a 13-year legal battle.

He faced more than 20 years in US prison if convicted of the fraud and conspiracy allegations, and The Times reported that he spent 13 months under house arrest awaiting the trial.

A spokesperson for Mr Lynch said there was no comment.

On Monday, it transpired Mr Lynch’s co-defendant in the case, Stephen Chamberlain, was critically injured in a road accident on Saturday, days before Mr Lynch went missing.

Mr Chamberlain, Autonomy’s former vice-president of finance alongside chief executive Lynch, was hit by a car in Cambridgeshire on Saturday morning and was placed on life support, Reuters reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Mr Chamberlain faced the same charges of fraud and conspiracy as his former boss for allegedly scheming to inflate the company’s value before it was sold but was also cleared of all charges.

Cambridgeshire Police appealed for witnesses after a collision between a pedestrian and a car in Newmarket Road in Stretham, Cambridgeshire, saying a man in his fifties had been taken to hospital with serious injuries.

Specialist cave divers are now being flown to Sicily from the Italian mainland to assist, while a helicopter and the fire brigade have been involved in the search.

A spokesman for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said: “We are in contact with the local authorities following an incident in Sicily, and stand ready to provide consular support to British nationals affected.”

Bayesian completed several sailings in recent days, calling at various ports in Sicily, according to the ship-tracking website VesselFinder.

The superyacht can accommodate up to 12 guests in six suites and is listed for rent for up to €195,000 (£166,000) a week.

She was built in 2008 by Italian company Perini Navi and has previously won an award for best exterior styling at the 2009 World Superyacht Awards.

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Search Resumes for U.K. Mogul and 5 Others After Yacht Sinks Off Sicily

The body of the vessel’s cook was recovered while divers searched the hull of the Bayesian for passengers, including the British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch.

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By Elisabetta Povoledo

Deep-sea divers with Italy’s firefighter corps resumed their search on Tuesday for six missing passengers — including a British software mogul and his daughter — of a yacht that sank off the coast of Sicily the previous day.

Twenty-two people were on board the 180-foot British-flagged sailing yacht, the Bayesian, which was anchored near the port of Porticello, when it was hit by what witnesses described as a waterspout, a small tornado on water, during a sudden and violent storm.

Fifteen people who managed to get to a raft were rescued by the captain of a nearby sailing cruise ship. The body of the yacht’s cook, identified by news outlets as Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian Antiguan, was recovered on Monday. But several people are still unaccounted for, according to Salvatore Cocina, an official with Sicily’s civil protection agency.

Those still missing are Mike Lynch, a British technology entrepreneur; his daughter Hannah; Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International; his wife, Judy Bloomer; Christopher J. Morvillo, a lawyer at Clifford Chance; and his wife, Neda Morvillo.

Mr. Lynch was acquitted of fraud in a U.S. trial in June, ending a high-profile, decadelong legal battle against accusations that he had defrauded Hewlett-Packard when he sold his company, Autonomy, to Hewlett for $11 billion.

Mr. Lynch and the others went missing days after Mr. Lynch’s co-defendant at the fraud trial, Stephen Chamberlain, a former vice president of finance at Autonomy, was fatally struck by a car on Saturday while out for a run, his lawyer, Gary S. Lincenberg, said in a statement.

Prosecutors in the Italian city of Termini Imerese, east of where the yacht sank, are opening a formal investigation into the yacht’s sinking. Reached by telephone, the chief prosecutor declined to comment.

The search for the missing passengers began on Monday but was suspended late that night as crews found themselves limited to the bridge deck and items like furnishings “obstructing passage,” the firefighters’ corps wrote on social media .

When divers resumed the search on Tuesday, ships trawled the waters near the site, the corps said in a statement. The Italian Coast Guard also said in a statement that search operations were “continuing unabated,” with the deployment of helicopters. There was no evidence that gasoline was leaking from the yacht, the Coast Guard said.

The yacht was lying on its right side in about 165 feet of water, meaning that divers, working in pairs, could stay underwater for only about 12 minutes at a time, said Luca Cari, a spokesman for the firefighters’ corps.

Divers were seeking a safe point of access to the vessel’s cabins. “Obviously, everything fell and the space is very tight,” Mr. Cari said, adding that the divers were having to remove obstacles, like furnishings and electrical wiring, that were “completely blocking passages.”

The firefighters’ corps said in a statement that it was impossible to verify whether people were inside the hull.

Mr. Cari said that several divers had been part of the search-and-rescue operations when the Costa Concordia, a cruise liner, capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio in 2012, killing 32 people. It is considered one of the worst maritime disasters in modern Italian history.

“It’s like the Costa Concordia, but much smaller,” Mr. Cari said in a telephone interview, comparing the search operations. “In the Costa Concordia, we came across many obstacles but we somehow were able to overcome them. Here, the obstacles block the passages and have to be removed.” He added, “This makes it more difficult.”

Crews were also trying to raise the yacht, which experts will examine to try to determine why it sank. Until then, experts can only hypothesize what happened.

Karsten Borner, the captain of a ship, the Sir Robert Baden Powell, which picked up the Bayesian’s 15 survivors, said in an interview that when the wind picked up around 4 a.m. Monday, the Bayesian was about 490 feet behind his vessel. Once the wind wound down, he said, he could not see the yacht anymore.

“My theory was that she was capsized first and then went down over the stern,” Mr. Borner said.

Dario Boote, a ship structures and naval architecture professor at the University of Genoa, said: “Now I imagine that a whole series of lawsuits will be triggered, obviously to ascertain whether there is any responsibility, as always happens very unpleasantly in these situations.” He said, however, that in this case, responsibility might be hard to determine. “Clearly, only once the wreck is raised will we know more,” he added.

Several fishermen told Italian news outlets that they had witnessed a waterspout. Peter Inness, a meteorologist at the University of Reading, said they were relatively common in the Mediterranean, though their occurrence and intensity are unpredictable.

“Until one actually forms, you can’t start telling people where it is,” Mr. Inness said, or “how to get out of the way.”

The inclement weather — with lightning intermittently streaking through the sky — made it hard to know exactly why the yacht sank. Col. Attilio Di Diodato, director of the Italian Air Force’s Center for Aerospace Meteorology and Climatology, said the agency had registered intense lightning activity and strong gusts of wind in the area at the time the boat sank.

The Bayesian had one of the tallest aluminum masts in the world, according to its builder, Perini Navi. “Having a tall aluminum mast would not make it the safest port to be in case of a storm,” said Andrea Ratti, associate professor of nautical design and architecture technology the Politecnico di Milano. The type of intensity unleashed by a violent lightning storm “could have created a significant shock wave,” he added.

He, too, cautioned that “a lot of questions will remain until we have other elements at our disposal.”

Modern yachts are built to withstand meteorological events of reasonable intensity, and all international naval registers suggest that new ships be designed for higher waves and more frequent and extreme weather events.

But “this seems a case of an unreasonable extreme event,” said Emilio Fortunato Campana, an expert in Naval Hydrodynamics at Italy’s National Research Council. “In that case, no ship is 100 percent safe,” he added. “I think the Titanic showed that nothing is unsinkable.”

Elisabetta Povoledo is a reporter based in Rome, covering Italy, the Vatican and the culture of the region. She has been a journalist for 35 years. More about Elisabetta Povoledo

Experts puzzle over why Bayesian yacht sank. Was it a 'black swan event'?

The Bayesian set off on a leisurely cruise around Italy's southern coast on a sunny day in late July.

The luxurious super yacht − which boasted one of the largest masts in the world and carried a crew of business moguls, including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his family and a chair of Morgan Stanley − set sail from the Amalfi Coast, bound for Sicily.

Less than a month later, the ship had sunk 160 feet under the water , leaving its cook dead and six of its passengers, including at least two Americans, missing and prompting a massive search that has drawn international attention.

Now, experts are trying to piece together why in the early hours Monday the Bayesian was quickly pulled under the waves amid a storm that saw at least one tornado spin up over the water.

A perfect storm led to Bayesian sinking, experts say

The combination of unlikely factors that could have contributed to the ship's fate constituted a "black swan event," Matthew Schanck, chairman of the Maritime Search and Rescue Council, told USA TODAY.

The Bayesian was well-built: A 2008 product of Italian ship maker Perini, it was constructed in accordance with international maritime standards and commercially certified by the U.K.'s Maritime and Coastguard Agency, according to Schanck.

The bout of bad weather that swept the area when the ship went down was also out of the ordinary in the northern Mediterranean, "which isn't renowned for prolonged, significant stormy weather," he said.

"The fact that those two elements have then resulted in the foundering of a super yacht is pretty extraordinary," Schanck said. "These things don't happen every day."

After the ship sank just before 5 a.m. local time, 15 people, including a 1-year-old, were pulled from the water. Some were rescued from a life raft by the crew of a ship docked nearby.

Ricardo Thomas, the ship's cook and a native of Antigua, was found dead, according to authorities.

As of Tuesday, six people were missing, including Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter. Several missing passengers were involved in Lynch's trial on fraud charges, including Jonathan Bloomer, a Morgan Stanley chair who served as his character witness, and one of Lynch's attorneys. Lynch, accused of fraud after he sold his company to electronics giant Hewlett-Packard, was acquitted of all charges weeks ago.

Who is Mike Lynch? UK entrepreneur among those missing after superyacht sinks off Sicily

Tornado formed over unusually hot water

Storms in the area that night may have whipped up a water spout, a tornado over the water , according to local meteorologists.

It was likely triggered by the water's unusual warmth, said Rick Shema, a certified consulting meteorologist who served in the Navy.

"The water spout was an uncommon occurrence," he said. "But again, these things happen, especially in warmer water."

At 83.7 degrees, water in the area was more than 3 degrees hotter than average on the day the Bayesian sank, likely the result of climate change, Shema said.

"Hurricanes can form at 80 degrees. This was almost four degrees higher than that," he said.

The water spout may have spun up when cooler air dropped from mountainous places nearby onto the hot water, he said. "A water spout is a vortex, basically like a tornado, spinning real fast, sucking up water and moisture as the column rises," he said.

Although water spouts only reach around 120 mph, as compared to tornadoes on land, which can reach up to 300 mph, "you don't need 200 mph to sink a ship," he said.

"Even an average tornado, 120 miles an hour, that's a lot of wind," he said, "which would heel the boat over for sure."

Water spouts spring up suddenly, Shema said. Before they strike, winds can be slow, but "once the water spout comes over, bam, it's on," he said.

Before sunrise, the ship's crew may not have seen the water spout coming. "The visibility was probably a big factor," he said.

With the windows of the yacht opened, as they likely were in the hot weather, the water spout could have triggered water that flooded through the portholes, Shema said, causing the ship to sink.

Tragedy strikes: Scramble to find survivors after Bayesian yacht sinks off Sicily coast

Search continues, but shift to recovery phase approaches

Italian authorities said the Bayesian was probably at anchor when the storm struck, meaning it couldn't maneuver and ride the waves, according to Mitchell Stoller, a captain and maritime expert witness. Other ships in the area that turned on their engines rode out the storm, he said.

"When you're at anchor and you see weather, you start your engine and you put the wind on the bow. You don't let it get on the side," he said.

Schanck said another key question concerns the position of the keel, a heavy weight underneath the boat that acts as a counterbalance to keep it upright, when the ship sank. When lifted, "that's going to affect the stability of the vessel, because, obviously, you've now raised the center of gravity of that vessel," he said.

The Bayesian was floating over 160 feet of water at the time, deep enough that the keel would likely be deployed. But the fact that "the vessel heeled over so heavily makes me question that," Schanck said.

The cause of the disaster may not be known until the ship can be examined in more detail, experts say. Prosecutors in a nearby town have already opened an investigation.

Schanck said investigators will have plenty to work with once the operation moves into a recovery phase.

"The vessel is intact and in good condition on the seabed," he said. "There's a lot of eyewitness accounts from other vessels in the area and the shore."

As the search entered its second day on Tuesday, the rescue effort may shift in that direction soon. "I suspect, later on, today or tomorrow, we'll probably see some mention of a recovery operation being stated," Schanck said.

The decision to would depend on whether rescuers find signs of life in the ship and air pockets or survivable spaces, Schanck said. At this point, survivors on the water's surface looks unlikely. "My professional opinion is that the casualties will be located within the vessel," he said.

"There is a risk versus benefit in all maritime search and rescue incidents," he said. "Where we start transitioning to a recovery phase, that line shifts."

Contributing: Reuters

Cybele Mayes-Osterman is a breaking news reporter for USA Today. Reach her on email at [email protected]. Follow her on X @CybeleMO.

After yacht sinks, experts say Mediterranean growing more dangerous

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Obama night at the DNC: Barack, Michelle rouse crowd for Harris

Former U.S. President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama delivered a one-two punch at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night, urging Americans to back Kamala Harris in her 11th-hour presidential bid against Republican Donald Trump.

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Luxury yacht sinks off Sicily, leaving U.K. tech magnate Mike Lynch, 2 Americans among those missing

By Anna Matranga

Updated on: August 20, 2024 / 7:47 PM EDT / CBS News

Rome  — Six people, including two U.S. nationals, a British technology entrepreneur and one of his daughters, were still missing Tuesday after a large luxury sailing yacht sank off the coast of the southern Italian island of Sicily during a violent storm. The 184-foot Bayesian had been anchored about half a mile off the port of Porticello, near Palermo, with 22 people on board — 10 crew members and 12 passengers.

The vessel sank at about 5 a.m. local time (11 p.m. Eastern, Sunday) after being hit by a possible waterspout spawned by the storm. Italian media said the winds snapped the boat's single mast, unbalancing the vessel and causing it to capsize.

Fifteen of those on board managed to escape the yacht and were rescued by a Dutch-flagged vessel that was anchored in the immediate vicinity. They were brought ashore by Italian Coast Guard and firefighters.

One body — an unidentified male — was recovered, but six people remained missing, including British software magnate Mike Lynch, once described as Britain's Bill Gates. 

Lynch was acquitted in June of fraud charges in the U.S. that could have landed him with a decades-long prison sentence. In an unusual twist, Lynch's co-defendant in that fraud case, who was also acquitted, died Saturday after being hit by a car while out jogging in England.

Lynch's teenage daughter Hannah was also among those missing, along with Lynch's American lawyer Chris Morvillo, a former assistant district attorney in New York, and his wife Neda. British banker Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International, was also still missing Tuesday.

Among the survivors was a 1-year-old British girl who was being treated at a nearby hospital along with her parents. They were doing well, according to Italian media.

"For two seconds I lost my child to the sea, then I immediately was able to grab her again in the fury of the waves," the girl's mother, identified only as Charlotte, was quoted as saying by Italy's ANSA news agency. "I held on to her tightly in the stormy sea. Many were screaming. Luckily the life raft opened up and 11 of us managed to get aboard."

"It was terrible," she told ANSA. "In just a few minutes the boat was hit by a very strong wind, and sunk soon thereafter."

Karsten Borner, the captain of the Dutch vessel that came to the rescue, told ANSA he had been anchored near the Bayesian.

"When the storm was over we noticed that the ship behind us was gone, and then we saw a red flare, so my first mate and I went to the position and we found this life raft drifting, and in the life raft was also a little baby and the wife of the owner."

Recovery efforts were back underway Tuesday, with speedboats, helicopters and divers continuing to search for the missing — as well as for answers, as to how a state-of-the-art superyacht could disappear in a flash. 

According to Italian media, Fire Brigade divers reached the boat and saw bodies trapped inside some of the cabins, but they had been unable to recover any of the victims from inside the vessel by Tuesday, due to obstructions. The Bayesian appeared to have sunk in an area with a depth of about 160 feet.

Witnesses said the boat sank quickly. 

"I was at home when the tornado hit," fisherman Pietro Asciutto told a local news outlet. "I immediately closed all the windows. Then I saw the boat, it had only one mast, it was very large. I suddenly saw it sink... The boat was still floating, then suddenly it disappeared. I saw it sink with my own eyes."

The director-general of Sicily's civil protection agency, Salvatore Cocina, confirmed to CBS News partner BBC News  that three of the six people still missing Monday were British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, whose company Autonomy Corporation PLC was acquired in 2011 by HP ; one of his daughters, Hannah Lynch, who is believed to be 18; and the boat's chef, Ricardo Thomas.

CBS News has seen corporate documentation showing a company called Revtom, solely owned by Lynch's wife Angela Bacares, who was among those rescued from the accident, as the owner of the yacht that capsized off Sicily. 

While the yacht was a privately owned pleasure boat, the waters around the island have claimed many lives over the last decade.

Dozens of migrants have died attempting to reach Sicily and smaller Italian islands in the region. Sicily sits only about 100 miles from the east coast of Tunisia in north Africa, and the Mediterranean crossing has been a frequent site of both nautical rescues and disasters as smugglers routinely send small boats overloaded with desperate people into the sea.

CBS News' Chris Livesay in Rome and Joanne Stocker in London contributed to this report.

Joanne Stocker and Alex Sundby contributed to this report.

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Tech tycoon, defense attorney, and Morgan Stanley banker among those missing in freak yacht sinking

A superyacht that sank off the Sicilian coast during a storm left six passengers missing, including British tech kingpin Mike Lynch and his daughter Hannah

LONDON -- A superyacht that sank Monday off the Sicilian coast during a storm left six passengers missing, including British tech kingpin Mike Lynch and some of his inner circle, who were gathered to celebrate his victory in a long-running legal trial.

Lynch was acquitted in June in a U.S. fraud case and was apparently aboard the Bayesian with some of the people who stood by him throughout the ordeal. Another member of Lynch's legal team who wasn't aboard, Reid Weingarten, said the outing was intended in part as a celebration of the acquittal.

Here's a look at the people who are missing, as well as details on the recent death of an associate of Lynch who was not on the yacht.

Software entrepreneur Mike Lynch , along with his daughter, Hannah, are among those that police divers are searching for after the yacht was struck by a waterspout off of Porticello, near Palermo.

A spokesperson for Lynch said there were no updates Tuesday.

Lynch had been trying to move past a Silicon Valley debacle that had tarnished his legacy as an icon of British ingenuity.

A Cambridge-educated mathematician, Lynch made his mark with Autonomy, which made a search engine that could pore through emails and other internal business documents to help companies find vital information more quickly. Autonomy’s steady growth in its first decade resulted in Lynch being dubbed Britain’s Bill Gates and earning him one of the U.K’s highest honors, the Office of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2006.

Lynch, 59, sold Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011 . But the deal quickly turned sour after he was accused of cooking the books to make the sale.

The fraud allegations resulting in Lynch being fired by HP’s then-CEO Meg Whitman and a decade-long legal battle. It culminated with him being extradited from the U.K. to face criminal charges of masterminding a multibillion-dollar fraud.

Lynch steadfastly denied any wrongdoing, asserting that he was being made a scapegoat for HP’s own bungling — a position he maintained while testifying before a jury during a 2 1/2 month trial in San Francisco earlier this year. U.S. Justice Department prosecutors called more than 30 witnesses in an attempt to prove their allegations against Lynch.

Lynch was vindicated at trial in June after being cleared of all charges. Lynch pledged to return to the U.K. and explore new ways to innovate.

Although he avoided a possible prison sentence, Lynch still faced a potentially huge bill stemming from a civil cased in London that HP mostly won in 2022. Damages haven’t been determined in that case, but HP is seeking $4 billion. Lynch made more than $800 million from the Autonomy sale.

Lynch later went on to set up technology investment firm Invoke Capital.

One of Lynch’s U.S. lawyers, Christopher Morvillo of the firm Clifford Chance, and his wife Neda were also on the yacht and are among those unaccounted for.

Morvillo is regarded as an elite defense attorney specializing in fraud and corruption cases. He was previously a federal prosecutor in New York who worked on the criminal investigation of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. His father, Robert Morvillo, was also a lawyer who represented high-profile clients, including Martha Stewart.

In a LinkedIn post soon after Lynch's acquittal, Morvillo paid tribute to the team of lawyers who worked on the case and also his wife and two daughters.

“None of this would have been possible without your love and support. I am so glad to be home,” he wrote. The post ended with the words: “And they all lived happily ever after….”

In a legal podcast released last week, Morvillo recounted his involvement with Lynch's case, starting from when his firm was hired in November 2012.

He flew to London to meet Lynch on Thanksgiving weekend that year and assumed he would be gone for a week, Morvillo told the For the Defense podcast. Instead, Morvillo said he “spent a significant portion of the rest of my life bouncing back and forth between London and New York.”

The case has “covered one third of my career,” he said. “It has been a constant presence in my life for the last 12 years.”

Clifford Chance said it was “in shock and deeply saddened by this tragic incident” and that its thoughts are with Morvillo and his wife. “Our utmost priority is providing support to the family,” the firm said.

The chairman of Morgan Stanley's London-based investment banking subsidiary, Jonathan Bloomer, and his wife, Judy, were also among the yacht's missing.

Bloomer is non-executive chairman of both Morgan Stanley International, which covers markets outside the U.S., and the Hiscox Group, an insurer that does business on the Lloyd’s of London insurance marketplace.

Lynch appointed Bloomer to Autonomy’s board of directors in 2010, where he served as chairman of the audit committee at the time of the HP deal. Bloomer testified for the defense at Lynch’s trial.

Both Morgan Stanley and Hiscox said they were “deeply shocked and saddened" by the tragedy.

“Our thoughts are with all those affected, in particular the Bloomer family, as we all wait for further news from this terrible situation," the bank said.

Aki Hussain, the group chief executive of Hiscox, said "our thoughts are with all those affected, in particular our chair, Jonathan Bloomer, and his wife Judy, who are among the missing, and with their family as they await further news from this terrible situation.”

In a strange coincidence, another former Autonomy executive who was acquitted alongside Lynch of the fraud charges died days before the sinking of the Bayesian.

Stephen Chamberlain “was fatally struck by a car on Saturday while out running,” his lawyer Gary Lincenberg said in a statement.

Chamberlain, formerly a vice-president of finance at the company, was accused of artificially inflating Autonomy’s revenues and making false and misleading statements to auditors, analysts and regulators.

He stood trial with Lynch, and was also found not guilty.

“He was a courageous man with unparalleled integrity. We deeply miss him," Lincenberg said. “Steve fought successfully to clear his good name at trial earlier this year, and his good name now lives on through his wonderful family.”

Chamberlain “was a much-loved husband, father, son, brother and friend," his family said in statement released through Cambridgeshire Police. “He was an amazing individual whose only goal in life was to help others in any way possible."

Police said the driver, a 49-year-old woman, remained at the scene in the village of Stretham, England, and was assisting with the investigation.

AP writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.

This version has corrected a date to 2001 sted 2002.

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Search continues after 1 dead, 6 missing after storm sinks luxury yacht in Sicily

The british-flagged bayesian superyacht was anchored off the coast of porticello with 22 people on board when a severe thunderstorm struck. the italian coast guard continues to attempt access to the sunken vessel to search for six missing people..

Italian Coast Guard continues search missing people from Bayesian superyacht

Aerial video shows the area off Porticello, Italy where Coast Guard crews continue to search for the remaining passengers and crew of the Bayesian yacht owned by the wife of British tech tycoon Mike Lynch. Lynch and his daughter are among the six missing. 

One person is dead, and six people remain missing off the coast of Sicily after a powerful sudden storm brought down a 180-foot yacht carrying more than a dozen people, including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, who is among the missing.

The British-flagged sailboat Bayesian, with 22 people on board, was anchored off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo, when a severe thunderstorm quickly rolled in. According to the Italian Department of Civil Protection, rain and thunderstorms with strong wind gusts were forecast over parts of Sicily through the weekend. 

Officials told the Associated Press a waterspout was reported in the area overnight when the yacht sank. Giuseppe Cefalu, a local fisherman from Sicily, told the PA news agency through a translator he saw a " tornado " close to the port of Porticello on Monday morning.

ITALY’S MOUNT ETNA ERUPTS AGAIN, SENDS ASH PLUME 32,000 FEET INTO SKY

According to the International Center for Waterspout Research (ICWR), Italy has been ranked second after the U.S. in waterspout sightings since 2023. Since Aug. 17, the ICWR said it has confirmed 18 waterspouts off Italy’s coasts in what the research group is calling a "waterspout outbreak."

Italian Coast Guard Command teams and firefighters are carrying out search and rescue operations with helicopters and ships to find missing people after after a yacht sank on Monday due to a storm 20 kilometers east of Palermo in southern Italy on August 19, 2024.  (Photo by Alberto Lo Bianco/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The Italian Coast Guard said the vessel sank around 4 a.m. Monday about 700 meters (nearly 2,300 feet) off the coast of Porticello.

The Coast Guard and nearby boaters helped rescue 15 people after the Bayesian went under the sea. The survivors include a mother who held her 1-year-old daughter above the water to prevent her from drowning, Reuters reported . One victim's body was recovered near the wreckage, according to Coast Guard officials.

The boat was owned by Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, who survived the shipwreck, Reuters reported. Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter are among the six missing. 

The Italian Coast Guard continues to attempt access to the sunken vessel. Coast Guard officials said entering the yacht is complex, and planning is underway to make it easier to inspect the interior of the ship. Specialists from around Italy arrived in Porticello on Monday to help search for the missing. 

The weather around Sicily has also hindered search efforts. Sicily remains under a Yellow Alert for possible thunderstorm activity on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The missing include four people from the U.K., two Canadians and two American citizens. 

Dangers of sailing on the Mediterranean Sea

Boating experts say sailing on the Mediterranean Sea can be challenging because of the diverse terrain surrounding the water. Even expert sailors can be caught off guard by the sea breezes and storms, which are sometimes difficult to predict.

The sea is surrounded by mountainous regions and, in the south, desert, creating temperature contrasts that can lead to windy conditions. Wind is created by the movement of air from one place to another, which happens as cold air rushes to replace rising warm air during a process known as diffusion.  

A picture shows the hotel Domina Zagarella Sicily hosting survivors and their relatives in Porticello, on August 20, 2024 near Palermo, a day after the British-flagged luxury yacht Bayesian sank. Specialist divers launched a fresh search for six people, including UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch and the chairman of Morgan Stanley International, missing since their yacht capsized off the Italian island of Sicily. (Photo by ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images)

(Getty Images)

Wind is such a big factor in the Mediterranean that there are several named winds: Meltemi, Bora, Sirocco and Mistral. These are the primary gusts and are fueled by topography and pressure differences. According to Sailogy , some of the winds can be predicted days in advance while others can quickly turn a pleasant sail into a choppy ride. 

• Extreme Weather

What we know about storm conditions related to the Sicily yacht sinking

If the storm that sank a yacht in Sicily was a waterspout, then it was probably a tornadic waterspout, which are often as strong as tornadoes over land.

A “violent storm” sank a luxury yacht off the northern coast of Sicily early Monday, according to local authorities, who said one person was dead and six people were missing. Divers had resumed searching for survivors on Tuesday, a day after the 183-foot yacht named Bayesian sank more than 160 feet below the surface of the Mediterranean Sea.

Fifteen out of 22 people aboard were rescued. Among the missing is British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch . Lynch’s wife was among those rescued, while his daughter remains missing.

The storm’s winds might have broken the boat’s aluminum mast, reportedly one of the world’s largest at 246 feet. It’s not clear exactly what type of storm struck the Bayesian, but weather data suggests it was probably a tornadic waterspout or severe thunderstorm.

What kind of storm appeared to sink the yacht?

Italian civil protection officials believe the yacht was hit by a waterspout, the Associated Press reported , which is defined as a tornado over water. Pieter Groenemeijer, director of the European Severe Storms Laboratory, said on X that it could have been a waterspout or a downburst, which is a strong gust of wind that comes from a thunderstorm.

No photographs or eyewitness accounts of the storm have emerged. Tornadoes and downbursts can look similar even during the light of day, let alone in the dark of night when the Bayesian was capsized.

What’s the difference between a tornado and a downburst?

A tornado is a narrow column of violently rotating cloud and wind that stretches from the base of a thunderstorm down to the ground, whereas a downburst comes directly from a thunderstorm that produces strong downward winds that hit the ground and spread out in all directions.

Both the rotating winds of tornadoes and the straight-line winds of downbursts can generate damaging wind gusts over 100 mph.

If the storm was a waterspout, then it was probably a tornadic waterspout, which are often as strong as tornadoes over land. There are also “fair weather” waterspouts, which don’t come from thunderstorms, but rather “develop at the surface of the water and … are usually small, relatively brief, and less dangerous,” according to the National Weather Service .

What were the conditions at the time of the sinking?

Weather model forecasts showed there would have been warm and unstable air overhead at the time of the storm, with low pressure centered to the northwest of Sicily. Such a weather pattern is conducive to the development of storms capable of producing damaging winds.

Satellite imagery and lightning data indicate there was an intense storm off the Sicily coast that was producing copious lightning at the time of the wreck. Private weather firm Meteologix said that “no weather radar data was available of the region.” News reports don’t indicate whether radar was available aboard the yacht.

A powerful thunderstorm with lots of detected lightning passed near Porticello (northern Sicily) where a ship capsized this morning killing one, and leaving 6 persons missing. Either a downburst or tornado over water (waterspout) probably occurred. https://t.co/2RQ5YEAp66 pic.twitter.com/GnjXru9hH4 — Pieter Groenemeijer 🇪🇺💙💛 (@pgroenemeijer) August 19, 2024

In response to the sinking, journalist Andrew Revkin described his experience with a storm while at the helm of a 60-foot sailboat in 1980.

Revkin added, “it still horrifies me how serene things were for those aboard the sv Bayesian just hours before she sank in an insane squall” and posted what appears to be a photograph of the vessel in calm waters.

Did climate change play a role?

This particular storm can’t be attributed directly to climate change. But it did occur against a backdrop of record-warm ocean temperatures, which can increase the energy available to storms.

Mediterranean Sea waters are currently the hottest on record, according to London-based meteorologist Scott Duncan , who noted that “18 out of the 20 hottest days for the Mediterranean sea surface temperature have been observed in the last 13 months alone.”