Yacht Rescue Involves Cutter in Long Tow
The Coast Guard cutter 'Block Island' has completed a 150 miles tow over a 32-hour period of the disabled 54-foot yacht 'Zulu' with 3 persons on board during bad weather off the coast of North Carolina. The captain aboard the Zulu initially contacted Coast Guard Sector North Carolina watch-standers via satellite phone to report that the sailboat was disabled and adrift with three people aboard approximately 100 miles east of Oregon Inlet, N.C. In early course the Coast Guard Cutter Block Island arrived on scene…
Coast Guard, Navy Busy off U.S. Atlantic Coast
The Coast Guard, with the assistance of the Navy, saved four lives and responded to a total of five sailboats in distress off the Atlantic Coast Thursday and Friday. Coast Guard assets and personnel involved in Thursday and Friday's search, rescue and vessel assists were crews aboard two HC-130 Hercules airplanes and an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Block Island, a 110-foot patrol boat homeported in Atlantic Beach, N.C., a 47-foot Motor Life Boat crew from Coast Guard Station Hatteras Inlet, N.C., and the command center personnel of the 5th Coast Guard District and Sector North Carolina.
Coast Guard Saves Foundering Barge
The Coast Guard helped save a sinking barge today on the Elizabeth River near the south end of Naval Station Norfolk. The 20-person crew of the dredging barge Pullen, a 150-ft. barge owned by the Norfolk Dredging Company, saw the Coast Guard Cutter Block Island underway and called for help at 10:30 a.m. The crew had a malfunction in their dredging gear that began flooding their barge’s forward hold at a rate of approximately 400 gallons a minute. The Block Island responded with several dewatering pumps. With the water Pullen’s forward hold reaching eight feet deep, rescue coordinators at Group Hampton Roads diverted a Coast Guard helicopter in the area to drop an additional pump to the foundering barge.
