Coast Guard battles wind, rescues boaters

Portsmouth crew rescues stranded boaters, including three clinging to a raft.

PORTSMOUTH -- Coast Guard rescue units out of Portsmouth already have rescued two groups of boaters endangered by today's gusting winds, and they are working on at least two more cases.

While the Coast Guard station in Mathews has remained quiet, the Portsmouth station has been busy rescuing boaters off the coast of the Outer Banks of North Carolina, said spokesman Petty Officer Christopher Evanson.

In a dramatic rescue this morning, a rescue crew picked up three boaters who were in the water clinging to a makeshift life raft. The Coast Guard station picked up a distress signal from 160 nautical miles east of Hatteras, where three people aboard the sailboat Lou Pantai had gone into the water.

Evanson said the Coast Guard sent a C-130 airplane to fly above them in order to guide the rescue helicopter. The helicopter dropped a rescue swimmer into the water who brought all three boaters aboard. They were taken to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, near Fort Macon, N.C. All three boaters were showing signs of hypothermia, and one of the three had broken ribs, Evanson said.

Earlier in the morning, the station's first rescue occurred in the Diamond Shoals area just off the coast of Cape Hatteras, when three people aboard the sailboat Seaker were caught in 40-knot winds. A Coast Guard helicopter rescued them and took them to Air Station Elizabeth City, where they were treated and released.

Currently, another rescue crew from Portsmouth is on its way to retrieve three people on board the sailboat Illusion, which has a hole in its hull caused by the anchor. A C-130 out of Elizabeth City has dropped those sailors a life raft while they wait for the Coast Guard helicopter.

A fourth boat had sent out an electronic distress signal, but that signal has since turned off, a Coast Guard spokesman said this afternoon. Rescue crews are searching for that vessel to ensure the boaters are safe.

In each case, he said, the Coast Guard was alerted to the ship in trouble by the vessel's electronic positioning indicating radio beacon (EPIRB), which automatically sends out a distress signal if the boat begins to take on water or sink.