Two people have been rescued after 20-foot waves tossed a yacht nearly 200 miles off Australia’s east coast as they were speeding toward New Zealand.
Authorities were first alerted to the case on Monday afternoon (2), when they activated a distress signal, but it took hours for the first rescue helicopters to locate the vessel.
The 20-metre yacht, the Spirit of Mateship, had lost power and communications and was being buffeted by winds of up to 90km/h, as well as waves up to six metres high.
“[A tripulação do helicóptero] managed to fly over the yacht and communicate with it via radio, but was unable to pick them up,” said Ben Flight, duty manager at the Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s Response Centre.
Another rescue attempt was later abandoned due to rough seas, forcing the two people – a 60-year-old man and a 48-year-old woman – to spend what Flight described as a “horrible” night at sea.
“They weren’t injured, but the boat had a mechanical problem of some sort, and they couldn’t steer, and they couldn’t navigate the water themselves, so they were adrift, and they were taking on water as well. So they were in a pretty serious situation,” Flight said.
“They were kind of at the mercy of the elements. They would have been moving around quite uncomfortably. It would have been particularly windy, noisy, probably quite wet as well.”
This content was originally published in Yacht sinks more than 300 kilometers off the coast of Australia; 2 people are rescued on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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