CARIBBEAN SEA – The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Dependable rescued five Haitian mariners Monday after the 40-foot wood sailboat they were on became disabled about 25 miles off the coast of Haiti.
The five men had been underway for eight days and were transiting from Nassau, Bahamas, back to Haiti carrying cargo of mattresses and batteries. The survivors reported their mast had broken the night before during heavy winds and had no engine.
An HH-65C rescue helicopter crew located the men in a 10-foot dinghy towing the sailboat toward Haiti.
The Haitian crew requested assistance and a rescue crew from the Dependable went aboard the boat to assess its stability and to rig a towline. The crew of the Dependable towed the sailboat about 25 miles into Cap du Mole, Haiti.
The Coast Guard Cutter Dependable is a 210-foot, medium-endurance cutter homeported at Coast Guard Training Center Cape May, N.J.
A Coast Guard boatcrew works to pass a towline to a disabled sailboat in the Caribbean Sea Sunday, Feb. 18, 2008. The smallboat crew from the Coast Guard Cutter Dependable towed the 40-foot sailboat after the boat was damaged in a storm about 25 miles from Haiti. U.S. Coast Guard photograph by Cmdr. Laura Dickey
