USCG’s 8th District Assists Several Mariners

It was a busy night Friday, May 3, as several mariners required the assistance of the Coast Guard units around the New Orleans and Galveston, Texas, areas. A 23-ft. safeboat from Station Grand Isle, La., was dispatched to assist a 45-ft. pleasure craft taking on water in Timbalier Bay, about10 p.m. Friday. The crew of the safeboat passed a de-watering pump to the five-man crew of the First Class, who were able to safely transit to the pier at Coco Marina. The Coast Guard crew followed to ensure their safe transit and mooring. In a separate case, a 41-ft. utility boat from Station Galveston safely transported a man suffering from abdominal pains with a weak pulse and shallow respiration from a tanker about 2 a.m. Saturday. The M/V Huntegas was anchored less than a mile outside the Galveston jetties when the crew from the utility boat transported 32-year-old Juanito Maranan ashore. Medical personnel brought him to the University of Texas Medical Branch where he was treated and released, according to hospital sources. In another case, a rescue helicopter from Air Station New Orleans and a small boat from Station Gulfport, Miss., searched late into Friday evening for three people after their 17-ft. pleasure craft was reportedly taking on water one mile southeast of the Pass Christian. A friend in a 16-ft. pleasure craft who had gotten underway with them reported the distress. After seeing the trouble the other boat was having navigating safely through the weather, he turned back and reported the case. The crew of the helicopter was about to begin their third search pattern when they were called off the case. The crew of the vessel in trouble managed to get their boat ashore, where authorities from the Pass Christian Harbor Police and Pass Christian Police Department identified them as the missing men.