An Amver participating tanker rescued three sailors and dog from a 49 foot sailboat approximately 880 miles northeast of Bermuda on Thursday, April 24, 2014 after the rudder had been ripped from the boat in severe weather and it began taking on water.
"In a liferaft, in serious trouble, needs rescue," was the message that accompanied the distress alert via the SPOT beacon and relayed to U.S. Coast Guard rescue personnel in Portsmouth, Va. Coast Guard rescue authorities immediately queried the Amver system looking for available commercial ships to assist and launched a C-130 search aircraft from Air Station Elisabeth City. The Isle of Man flagged tanker Tilda Kosan replied there were near the scene and agreed to help the yachtsmen.
The sailors, two British, one Canadian and a dog, were sailing from the Turks and Caicos enroute to the Azores when they stopped communicating with family on shore. Shortly thereafter the emergency notification was received by rescue authorities.
Coast Guard personnel contacted the 348 foot tanker to get an update on the rescue when the captain of the ship replied "We cannot talk, pulling people out of the water," and agreed to provide an update when the survivors were safely aboard his ship.
"All three people and dog are safe on board our vessel. No major medical issues but the people are tired and cold. We are enroute to Mexico," the captain reported to the Coast Guard. The Tilda Kosan will disembark the survivors in Altamira, Mexico.
The survivors praised the Coast Guard for the quick response. You can hear an excerpt of the survivor's comments here-
Can't hear the audio? Click here.
Transcript- "[... unintelligible] I appreciate it, I'm going to [unintelligible] the U.S. Coast Guard, the minute our EPIRB signal went up the U.S. Coast Guard got ahold of Uncle [unintelligible] they've been talking to him all night before the rescue telling him there is a problem and they're looking for a ship or looking for a life raft for survivors. They're doing what they could. They [USCG and Amver] were fantastic, absolutely fantastic, they didn't play around. They were super quick. Norfolk, VA is where they did it from..."
The Tilda Kosan, managed by Lauritzen Kosan, enrolled in Amver on August 24, 2001.
Photo credit: marinetraffic.com
Audio credit: USCG
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