A cruise ship rescued an injured 74-year-old Canadian man on a sailboat that was adrift 500 miles off the coast of Oregon on Tuesday, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
The rescued man, an experienced sailor whose name hasn’t been released, was heading from Hawaii to British Columbia when his 29-foot sailboat “was de-masted and the engine was rendered inoperable” while sailing in gale-force winds, the Coast Guard said in a statement.
The sailor, who sustained a shoulder injury, had a hand-held satellite communicator and so was able to send a distress call. The Coast Guard identified the closest available ship, a cruise ship called Silver Whisper, which diverted 120 miles to rescue the man, officials said. A Coast Guard C-27J Spartan airplane, based in Sacramento, provided “aerial overwatch.”
The Silver Whisper, which promotes itself as having “the amenities of a grand resort,” brought the sailor onboard and provided him with medical care before going on to Vancouver.
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