WACHAPREAGUE, Va. — The Coast Guard rescued a boat more than 30 miles off Virginia's Eastern Shore Thursday after it started taking on water.
Around 7:08 a.m., the Coast Guard watch at Station Wachapreague got a distress call about the sinking boat east of Wachapreague Inlet.
The team sent out a 45-foot Response Boat, a 47-foot Motore Lifeboat crew, a MH-60 Dolphin helicopter (from Elizabeth City) and the cutter Angela McShan to make the rescue.
The Angela McShan reached the four-person crew at 8:11 a.m., and around 9 a.m., the Coast Guard's response boat had arrived and was able to get a pump onto the sinking boat, to help get some water out of it.
Over the next six hours, the Coast Guard towed it back to Wachapreague Inlet.
After the ordeal, none of the people on the boat had been hurt.
Chief Warrant Officer Daniel Butierries, the search and rescue mission coordinator for Coast Guard Sector Virginia, said the crew's safety equipment made all the difference in this rescue.
“A working VHF-FM radio is imperative, and always make sure that you and your passengers are wearing life jackets," Butierries wrote.
