Vigil for missing MV Guidance Crew takes place in Canouan tomorrow

Leader of the Opposition, Dr Godwin Friday, says that the five men missing at sea since Hurricane Beryl struck on July 1,2024, have been presumed dead and a vigil will be held for them this weekend.

Five persons died in Union Island when the Category Five storm struck last year, and Friday said it is fair to assume that the death toll is 10, as it has been over six months since the MV Guidance II, captained by Maxwell Burke, and his four man crew went missing.

“We heard that five persons died…but there were five others who are still missing, feared dead, on the MV Guidance. I believe there is going to be a vigil this weekend,” Friday said in Parliament on Tuesday, January 14, during his response to the 2025 Budget.

“It’s been six months …so where we always wish to hope, we also have to face the grim reality that they may not come back,” Friday said in Parliament.

He added, “our hearts are with the families of those who were lost, there were five of them on that boat, that they will have the strength to come to terms with this and receive some comfort from the support they will have in the community on the weekend at the vigil and in all things.

“Madam Speaker, God knows best. We are a resilient people in this country,” Friday also commented.

All five men who are missing are from the Grenadines. The opposition lawmaker said that a “proud fact” in our history is the struggle that our forebears engaged in against insurmountable odds to secure the sovereignty of this country and to protect their land. The MV Guidance 11, a 150-foot vessel with a white superstructure, was anchored in Canouan when Hurricane Beryl struck on July 1, 2024. It was noted that the anchor started to drag, so the crew started the motor to try and re-anchor the boat, but soon after, the rudders stopped working, and the boat went adrift in the storm.

A close friend of the captain said reports from at least one other captain who was drifting on another vessel on the same day and was in touch with Burke, said he thinks the missing vessel may have capsized due to its design and the extremely aggressive seas.

Hurricane Beryl is the only documented Category 4/5 tropical cyclone to ever strike these parts. The vigil for Burke and the vessel’s crew will be held tomorrow, Saturday January 18,2025. It will start with a march from Burke’s residence at Moon Hole, Canouan, to the wharf where the vigil will take place.