Six People Rescued From Sinking Boat

Yesterday [July 20] an afternoon out for a group from the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences [BIOS] did not go as planned – as their boat began sinking after taking on water.

At approximately 4.30pm, the Bermuda Maritime Operations Centre received a call for assistance from persons onboard of a 28 foot Twin V boat saying the vessel was disabled and taking on water.

At the time of the call the boat was approximately 1.5 miles off the North Shore in the Flatts area, and Harbour Radio commenced urgent marine broadcasts requesting assistance of boats in the area.

Marine and Ports Pilot boat St. George was tasked with attending the scene, and departed from St. George’s Harbour, and two other BIOS boats also attended the scene to assist.

In the photo below, the disabled boat is pictured in the middle – next to the dark coloured pilot boat – while the two other boats from BIOS are on either side.

Harbour Radio stayed in contact with the persons on board the sinking boat via cellular phone, and confirmed that all persons had life jackets on.

All passengers on the stricken boat were safely transported back to shore, and the “Henry Stommel” towed the disabled boat back to BIOS where it was removed from the water.

Last night a Harbour Radio spokesperson said, “There was no VHF Radio used in today’s incident, which would have allowed Bermuda Radio to pin-point the exact position of this vessel especially under today’s adverse weather conditions. It is unclear at this time whether the boat had a VHF radio on board or not.”

“Bermuda Maritime Operations Centre would like to emphasize the need for all mariners to keep a listening watch on VHF CH16 once out on the water and to ensure that proper marine safety equipment is carried onboard before venturing to sea.”

Update: The large blue and white rescue boat is actually the Bermuda Zoological Society’s vessel Endurance.

#BermudaInstituteOfOceanSciences #BermudaMarine #BoatRescuesDisasters

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