Stranded sailboat crew of 4 hoisted to safety by Coast Guard
Four men stranded at sea last weekend were hoisted into a Coast Guard helicopter after 25-foot waves capsized their Mount Sinai sailboat 100 miles south of Long Island.
Coast Guard officers from the Air Station Cape Cod were called May 8 to rescue the Mount Sinai-based Calypso, which became marooned in the Atlantic while returning from a Bermuda-to-Connecticut sailing trip, Coast Guard Lt. Nick Zablotny said Saturday.
The 52-foot sailboat was tossed around in the open sea, and overturned, snapping the mast off before it righted itself, leaving the crew at the mercy of waves, wind and rain on Mother’s Day. The boat’s owner could not be reached Saturday to talk about the rescue.
“They just got unlucky because they hit the waves in a certain condition and some large wave knocked them over,” Zablotny said. “The weather got worse and they were hit by a wave and capsized and snapped off the mast. The ship was righted and it was dead in the water while they were tossed about by the waves."
The Coast Guard helicopter was called about 6 p.m. Sunday to an emergency position radio beacon and traveled 150 miles from Cape Cod to the disabled vessel. The crew piloted by Lt. Commander Dan Reilly and Zablotny arrived about 20 minutes before sunset to find the mangled ship being tossed at sea.
Coast Guard officers captured the rescue on helmet cameras as they hoisted themselves into the water to rescue the crew. Rescue swimmer Ed Bizorik was lowered into the water first to assess the situation and found the Calypso’s tattered sail hanging among the wreckage in the water.
The four sailors, all in their 60s and 70s, stayed in the boat's cabin as it capsized and uprighted itself in the water. Temperatures had dropped to 40 with rain and winds up to 50 mph as the Coast Guard arrived.
“We determined they were all in pretty rough shape and mildly hypothermic,” Zablotny said. “They were not wearing the proper survival suits, just rain gear, and we realized we needed to hoist them from the vessel itself and not put them in the water,”
Typically, the helicopter moves crew members to a rescue basket waiting in the water so their equipment doesn’t get tangled with the boat. Zablotny said he couldn’t see the rescue below him, so he depended on fellow officers to guide the helicopter and lift the rescue basket off the boat. Coast Guard officers worked into the night to pull the four men off the boat to the helicopter hovering above.
One man on the Calypso had a gash across his forehead and another had broken ribs. The helicopter took the four men to Francis Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach, where Westhampton Beach firefighters were waiting with three ambulances.
“It got darker and darker and it seemed the seas started to pick up and we got rocked by a couple waves,” Zablotny said. “It was definitely a challenging rescue for us and [we're] excited we were able to get the job done.”
John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.
