Video: One Dead, One Saved in Challenging Rescue off Washington
On Monday night, the U.S. Coast Guard rescued two people from a grounded sailboat in the San Juan Islands, braving high winds and snow to pull them to safety. Tragically, one of the survivors later succumbed to her injuries.
At about 1900 hours Monday, Sector Puget Sound received a mayday call from the captain of a 31-foot sailboat. The skipper reported that his boat was disabled and drifting towards shore.
The SAR command center dispatched a boat crew from Station Bellingham and a helicopter aircrew out of Port Angeles to respond to the scene. On arrival, the aircrew found snowy conditions, temperatures near 20 degrees F, winds of up to 30 miles an hour and seas of four to six feet - difficult circumstances for a rescue near shore.
The boat still had sails up, and the mast was swinging back and forth with the wave action, a spokesperson told Fox Weather. The helicopter aircrew was working out the best way to get the two occupants hoisted up when the boat ran aground on a rocky shore and quickly dismasted.
Without the hazard of the waving mast, the aircrew was able to lower their rescue swimmer down to the boat. The skipper was transferred to the Coast Guard rescue boat, but the woman had been knocked over the side during the grounding. The helicopter aircrew searched for and found her, and guided the rescue boat crew in to retrieve her from the water. She was unconscious when the boat crew recovered her, and was transferred to the helicopter for immediate medevac. Despite attempts at CPR she could not be revived, and she was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The skipper was delivered safely to Bellingham and transferred to a nearby hospital for evaluation. In addition, a Coast Guard servicemember was injured during the rescue and was sent for medical care; they were released later the same night.
"This was especially challenging given the conditions we had," the commanding officer for the mission told Fox. "It's much colder in Washington right now than it normally would be . . . so some really bad conditions."