Coast Guard Rescues Family of Three From Half-Sunken Yacht off Bahamas

 

On Monday, the U.S. Coast Guard rescued a family of three from a partially-sunken sailing vessel near Plana Cays, Bahamas, hundreds of miles from Florida's shores. 

At about midnight on Sunday night, a good Samaritan notified Coast Guard Seventh District of a family aboard a yacht in distress. In response, the service dispatched a helicopter aircrew attached to Operation Bahamas Turks and Caicos, the long-running counter-trafficking partnership based out of Great Inagua.  

At about 0700 hours, a Jayhawk aircrew located the family on a life raft. Conditions were calm on scene, and the crew deployed their rescue diver into the water to retrieve the survivors. The hoist proceeded without issue, and the familymembers - including one eight-year-old child - were delivered safely to shore. No injuries were reported. 

"Our aircrews train very hard for moments like this, and we are thankful to have played a role in the safe rescue of this family of three," said Lt. Andrew Boyle of Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater.

The owner of the vessel is making arrangements with a commercial salvor for its removal. 

The Coast Guard forward-deployed helicopter presence in the Bahamas is part of an American partnership dating back to 1982, the days of the Medellin cartel. Enterprising smugglers had begun using the Bahamas as a transshipment point for narcotics, so U.S. law enforcement agencies signed up to help the island archipelago to police its waters and shores. As part of that program, the Coast Guard built a small base on Great Inagua, where it keeps interceptor boats and helicopters for drug interdiction missions.