Coast Guard Rescues Six People on a Boat with Disabled Engine 420 Miles from Cape Canaveral
By Space Coast Daily // November 27, 2019

BREVARD COUNTY • CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA – The Coast Guard and a good Samaritan vessel assisted a disabled 68-foot sailing vessel more than 420 miles east of Cape Canaveral.
Coast Guard 7th District Command Center watchstanders received a report at approximately 2:30 p.m., Sunday, that the 68-foot sailing vessel, Distant Drummer, with six people aboard was disabled.
The watchstanders issued an enhanced group calling (EGC) message and contacted the automated mutual-assistance vessel rescue (AMVER) motor vessel, Sophie Schulte, the Coast Guard Cutter Bernard C. Webber (WPC-1101) and guided-missile destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81) to assist.
The vessel Sophie Schulte crew arrived on scene with the Distant Drummer and attempted to assist in repairing the sailing vessel’s engine.

The Sophie Schulte crew remained on scene until the cutter Bernard C. Webber crew arrived at 12:30 p.m., Monday, and took the vessel in tow.
The cutter crew towed the sailing vessel to Fort Pierce where a Coast Guard Station Fort Pierce 45-foot Response Boat—Medium boat crew continued the tow to a safe harbor in Fort Pierce.
The cutter Bernard C. Webber is a 154-foot fast response cutter homeported in Miami. The USS Winston S. Churchill is a 510-foot Arleigh Burke-class destroyer homeported in Norfolk, Virginia.
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