Mummified body found on German adventurer's yacht drifting in the Pacific Ocean

Police in the Philippines said they were trying to confirm the identity and cause of death of a man whose mummified body was found sitting slumped in a yacht that was drifting in the Pacific Ocean and which was apparently owned by a German adventurer.

Police chief inspector Dominador Plaza said the grey decomposing remains of the man resembled a mummy.

His body was discovered near the radio in the cabin of a white yacht by fishermen off the south- eastern province of Surigao del Sur.

There were no visible signs of foul play, like a gunshot or stabbing wound, Insp Plaza said.

“Initially, it looks to us that he died of natural causes, maybe a heart attack,” he said by phone.

“And death appears to have come suddenly because he was still sitting by the table when he passed away.”

Insp Plaza said initial estimates show the man had been dead in the hot enclosed cabin for at least several days, but that authorities were awaiting an autopsy report due this week for a more accurate finding.

The 40ft-long sailboat’s mast was broken, maybe in a storm, police said.

Documents found in the yacht showed that it was apparently owned by a German adventurer identified as 59-year-old Manfred Fritz Bajorat, Insp Plaza said, adding that investigators still have to determine whether he was the dead man.

It is believed Mr Bajorat’s body may have effectively been “mummified” by the ocean winds, hot temperatures, and the salty sea air.

His last reported sighting was in 2009, but a friend told Germany’s Bild newspaper that he last heard of him a year ago on social media for his birthday.

Mayor Felixberto Urbiztondo of Surigao del Sur’s coastal town of Barobo, where fishermen towed the damaged yacht and the body was brought, said a daughter of Mr Bajorat called to say her family was planning to travel to the Philippines to help investigators confirm whether the man was her father.

If the man was Mr Bajorat, Mr Urbiztondo said the man’s family plans to have him cremated before bringing him back home.

The German Embassy in Manila refused to comment and referred questions to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berlin.

It emerged a letter from Mr Bajorat to his late wife, Claudia, was also found.

“Thirty years we’ve been together on the same path.

"Then the power of the demons was stronger than the will to live. You’re gone. May your soul find its peace. Your Manfred,’ it read.

His wife is believed to have died in 2010 from cancer but they had split up in 2008.

It is understood Mr Bajorat had been sailing around the world for much of the last 20 years.