A foreign-flagged cruise ship that is part of the global automated mutual-assistance vessel rescue (AMVER) system rescued three distressed boaters some 400 miles off the Alabama coast.
U.S. Coast Guard watch standers in New Orleans received an alert from an emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) at about 0720 on March 26 from the 44-foot recreational vessel Snail Mail.
The vessel’s owners were shoreside, but they learned via a SPOT GPS messaging system that the vessel was taking on water with three people on board, according to a Coast Guard news release.
Coast Guard teams identified Snail Mail’s location and scanned the area for ships enrolled in the AMVER program. They found the Panama-flagged Carnival Valor nearby and directed it to divert toward Snail Mail. Meanwhile, a Coast Guard HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft departed the USCG Aviation Training Center Mobile to search for the boaters.
The air crew “located Snail Mail and vectored Carnival Valor to its location,” the release said. “The cruise ship arrived on scene, launched its rescue boat, rescued all three boaters and transferred them back to the ship to be medically evaluated by the ship’s doctor.”
All three boaters were said to be in stable condition.
Lt. j.g. Gretchen Gochnour, a command duty officer at the District Eight Command Center, gave special thanks to the cruise ship and its crew.