3 rescued after 8 days lost at sea
Published: August 12, 2005
An oil tanker rescued three men who were stranded at sea for eight days after their boat ran out of fuel in the eastern Caribbean, a U.S. Coast Guard official said Thursday.
The men set out in a 30-foot (9-meter) power boat from their native St. Vincent for Antigua on August 2 when they got lost and ran out of gas, Coast Guard spokesman Lt. j.g. Eric Willis said.
The men floated helplessly for eight days, eventually running out of food and water, Willis said.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection plane spotted them early Wednesday about 165 miles (265 kilometers) west of the French Caribbean territory of Martinique and alerted the Coast Guard, which issued a bulletin seeking help for the men.
A 425-foot (129-meter) tanker shipping crude from St. Lucia to Beaumont, Texas, diverted its course to rescue the men, who were in good condition after receiving food and water, Willis said.
The tanker, whose home port is the Marshall Islands in the West Pacific, chose not to divert further and will hand the men over to U.S. immigration authorities after its scheduled arrival in Texas on Monday, Willis said.
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