U.S. Coast Guard rescue personnel at the Eleventh District Command Center received notification from the Garmin/Inreach Emergency Call Center that the 23-foot sailboat, on a voyage from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico to the Marquesas Islands had experienced difficulties and lost auto-steering after encountering severe weather. The two yachtsmen on board had activated the emergency feature of their Inreach device and requested rescue.
Coast Guard authorities conducted an Amver Surface Picture and located the 977-foot LNG carrier only 280 miles from the sailboat and requested the ship divert to assist. The captain of the Great Britain flagged vessel agreed to assist and changed course to find the stricken sailboat.
The Stena Crystal Sky arrived on scene and, despite winds of 22-knots and waves exceeding 10-feet, launched a small boat to recover the two sailors from their boat. Within an hour of arriving on scene the crew of the Stena Crystal Sky had safely embarked the sailors and left the sailboat adrift. The sailors were uninjured and stayed aboard the LNG carrier until it arrived in Panama.
The Stena Crystal Sky, managed by Stena Bulk of Sweden, enrolled in Amver on January 13, 2012 and has earned six Amver participation awards.
Sailors are strongly encouraged to have a properly registered 406 MHz Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon on their vessel in addition to whatever other communications or emergency texting device they may carry.
Photo credit: marinetraffic.com
No comments:
Post a Comment
We welcome your comments on postings at all Coast Guard sites/journals. These are sponsored by the U.S. Coast Guard to provide a forum to talk about our work providing maritime safety, security and stewardship for the American people to secure the homeland, save lives and property, protect the environment, and promote economic prosperity.
All comments submitted are moderated and will be reviewed before posting. The Coast Guard retains the discretion to determine which comments it will post and which it will not. We expect all contributors to be respectful. We will not post comments that contain personal attacks of any kind; refer to Coast Guard or other employees by name; contain offensive terms that target specific ethnic or racial groups, or vulgar language. We will also not post comments that are spam or are clearly off topic.