Three rescued from sailboat during rough seas, Suffolk police say
Suffolk County police officers rescued three people Tuesday night after their sailboat struck a sandbar off Fire Island.
The Marine Bureau was called to a stranded 36-foot sailboat that had sent a distress alert on a VHF radio channel at 9:25 p.m. at Fire Island Inlet, near Democrat Point, between Gilgo State Park and Robert Moses State Park in Babylon, police said.
The captain told police that his boat was disabled when it hit the sandbar. Suffolk County police Marine Kilo and Marine Juliet responded with a police helicopter, and was joined by the U.S. Coast Guard, police said.
At the time, there was a small craft advisory warning of rough seas. Police said four- to five-foot waves forced four Marine Bureau officers to make four different attempts to reach the boat.
The 60-year-old captain and his two passengers were rescued by police and taken to a Coast Guard station, where they did not require any medical treatment, police said.
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.
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