PACIFIC OCEAN – The Coast Guard Cutter Pike with the sailing vessel Kalani in tow. U.S. Coast Guard photo.
SAN FRANCISCO – The Coast Guard rescued a disabled sailboat with two people aboard 170 miles west of San Francisco Tuesday night.
Coast Guard Sector San Francisco watchstanders received a report Monday at 4:44 a.m. that the 53-foot sailing vessel Kalani was disabled with a broken rudder, in rough weather conditions, 170 miles west of San Francisco. Communications with the vessel operator were limited due to distance offshore and their onboard equipment.
The Coast Guard Cutter Walnut, a 225-foot buoy tender, transiting from Hawaii to San Francisco, was diverted and a C-130 fixed-winged aircraft from Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento also responded. The aircraft arrived, provided a communications relay, and updated position for the sailing vessel. Soon after, the cutter Walnut arrived to stabilize the situation.
Coast Guard Cutter Pike, an 87-foot Coastal Patrol Boat homeported in San Francisco, arrived and took the disabled sailing vessel in tow. After a more than 24-hour transit in heavy gale wind conditions and 12-foot seas, the Pike and a Coast Guard Station Golden Gate motor lifeboat crew assisted the Kalani into port in San Francisco at 11 p.m. Tuesday night.
No injuries were reported.
