Four ways to be located

Captains,

Today's rescue reports include four different ways to be located: EPIRB, cell phone, distress signal, and marine radio. Smart mariners carry all four.

RDML W

EPIRB leads Coast Guard to distressed mariner

SABINE, Texas — Following a distress from an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) onboard a 34-foot sailing vessel, the Coast Guard found a missing 80-year-old man Tuesday who had departed Houston ten days ago. The Eighth Coast Guard District command center received the distress alert located approximately 115 miles south of Sabine at 9:30 a.m. The Coast Guard contacted the owner of the EPIRB and was notified by a family member that the 80-year-old owner of the sailing vessel, Enchantress, departed Houston approximately ten days ago and was headed toward Kemah, Texas. Coast Guard locates overdue boater in Chesapeake Bay BALTIMORE – The Coast Guard rescued a man aboard a disabled 21-foot recreational boat approximately three miles northeast of Thomas Point Park in the Chesapeake Bay, Wednesday. The boater’s friend contacted Coast Guard Sector Baltimore watchstanders at 10 p.m., Tuesday, reporting that he did not report to work. In a phone conversation between the boater and his friend earlier that day, he indicated he was going fishing. Sector Baltimore watchstanders contacted the boater’s cellular phone provider to try and triangulate his position and was able to determine that the last known call was at 7:56 a.m., Tuesday, and his approximate position was five miles from Thomas Point Shoal Light. Coast Guard responds to distress signal NEW ORLEANS — The Coast Guard responded to a distress signal from a 26-foot sailing vessel, 30 miles south of Venice, La., Tuesday. An MH-65C Dolphin rescue helicopter and crew from Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans was diverted from a training mission and arrived at the vessel's location at 8:36 p.m. A radio was lowered to the vessel and the 26-year-old man onboard. Coast Guard en route to disabled Gloucester boat 200 miles offshore BOSTON — A Coast Guard cutter is en route to help five Gloucester, Mass., fishermen on a disabled lobster boat more than 200 miles southeast of Nantucket, Mass., Wednesday night. The owner of the 77-foot boat, suspecting contaminated fuel, radioed for help when the boat’s engines would not start at about 3:30 p.m. Initial communications with the boat were spotty, so a C-130 Hercules plane from Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., already nearby for another mission, guided the vessel to an area where Sector Southeastern New England command center staff in Woods Hole, Mass., could maintain radio communication.