WILLEMSTAD - Recently an Austrian captain and his family on their way to St. Vincent had problems with the rudder of their vessel. The captain was unable to fix the problem himself and sent a distress signal with his spot device (beacon) via satellite to the Rescue and Coordination Center (RCC) for help. The vessel was located in the remote corner of the Caribbean Coast Guard SAR area, approximately 300 miles north of Aruba.
The RCC dispatched the Coast Guard aircraft, the Dash 8, to the location to assist the three persons on board. On the outward journey, Dash 8 contacted C / S Roosevelt, a container ship operating near Sea Rah with a request to assist with this SAR action. The family on board the sailing yacht agreed, for their safety, to leave the vessel and board the container vessel.
After consultation, Curaçao was chosen as the best option to accommodate these persons and C / S Roosevelt sailed towards the island to drop them off. On arrival of the container ship near Curaçao, a Metal Shark was sent by the RCC to the container ship to safely remove the family from the ship. All precautionary measures related to COVID-19 to rescue these persons have been observed. The video about the search and rescue action can be seen on the Facebook page of the Caribbean Coast Guard.