#Breaking (1/2) Last night, a #USCG boatcrew and aircrew rescued 2 boaters from a disabled and grounded 31-foot sailboat from the San Juan Islands area. The crews rescued a 56-year-old man and recovered a woman from the water who later succumbed to her injuries... pic.twitter.com/SiKxHhak7h
— USCGPacificNorthwest (@USCGPacificNW) February 5, 2025
A Canadian man and a woman were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard after their sailboat ran aground in snowy, windy conditions east of Saturna Island on Monday night, but the woman was later declared dead.
The woman was unconscious when rescuers reached her in the water. CPR was started as soon as she was loaded onto a waiting response vessel from the coast guard’s Bellingham station.
She was then hoisted to a coast guard helicopter and taken to Bellingham’s St. Joseph Medical Center, where she was declared dead.
The pair’s 31-foot vessel had run aground on Sucia Island, due north of Orcas Island, about halfway between Saturna and Bellingham Bay. The coast guard said the man is 56 and the woman was around the same age.
“The conditions on scene were pretty rough,” said Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier, a coast guard spokesperson, on Wednesday. “Thankfully the air crews and boat crews were able to still arrive.”
The winds were blowing about 50 kilometres an hour and seas were as high as six feet at the time of the rescue. A coast guard video shows crew members working to stay close to the stricken sailboat as it’s tossed in the surging seas near the rocky shoreline.
The coast guard said it had received a mayday call from the man via VHF radio about 7 p.m., saying the craft was disabled and moving toward land.
Strohmaier said it’s not yet known if mechanical issues played a part in the incident.
He said rescue crews got to the area as the boat was nearing Sucia Island. “The winds were obviously pushing it toward there.”
The boat’s mast and rigging collapsed, Strohmaier said, and it was decided “the best and safest way” to proceed was to lower a rescue swimmer from the helicopter.
“Of course, when you’re so close to rocks, to have a small boat pull alongside and have people jump on board the rescue boat creates a very dangerous situation,” he said.
The rescue swimmer reached the sailboat and found the man, and got him to the response vessel, Strohmaier said.
The helicopter crew then spotted the woman in the water and guided the response vessel to her location.
As the woman was being flown to Bellingham, the man was transported in the response vessel to the same hospital.
A member of the coast guard crew was injured during the rescue and also taken to the hospital before being released later in the evening.
U.S. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Ayla Hudson said the fact that the sailboat had a VHF radio was key to the coast guard response, since it helped pinpoint its location.
“Generally on recreational vessels they’re not built in,” Hudson said.
She said having a VHF on a boat “makes all the difference” in how quickly the coast guard can get to to the vessel when help is needed.
