Sailors trapped in rough seas 345 miles off NC’s Outer Banks get lucky break
A cargo ship crew rescued two sailors caught in rough seas hundreds of miles off the North Carolina coast.
The two were approximately 345 miles east of Hatteras Inlet on the Outer Banks on Saturday when rough seas “disabled” their sailboat, leaving them stranded in the severe weather, according to a news release from the U.S. Coast Guard.
Coast Guard watchstanders got a notification around 9:30 a.m. about a GPS alert from the sailors stating their sails and engine had failed and that they were stuck in the bad weather, the release says.
The Coast Guard launched a rescue aircrew and sent out an emergency alert to other vessels in the area requesting assistance, the release says.
A 958-foot cargo ship nearby heard the call and diverted its course to the sailors, according to the Coast Guard.
The crew successfully rescued the two from the sailboat, the release says, and the ship is now headed to Baltimore.
A photo taken from the Coast Guard’s rescue aircraft shows the sailboat pulled up alongside the KSL Santiago as the crew worked to rescue the two mariners.
No injuries were reported, according to the Coast Guard.
“This could have gone much differently given the weather conditions, the fact that the boat was disabled and that it was in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean,” Kelvin Morgan, operational unit controller for the Coast Guard’s Fifth District command center, said in the release. “The fact we have partners like the crew and captain of the KSL Santiago allows cases like this to have a happy ending.”
This story was originally published December 6, 2020 at 1:45 PM with the headline "Sailors trapped in rough seas 345 miles off NC’s Outer Banks get lucky break."
