Coast Guard Completes 35-Hour Rescue Mission Saturday

On Saturday morning, nearly 35 hours after an initial distress call, the Coast Guard towed a disabled fishing vessel 69 miles back to Shinnecock Inlet.

Watchstanders at Coast Guard Station Shinnecock in Hampton Bays received a report on Thursday at around 11:30 p.m. from the crew on the commercial fishing vessel "Rhonda Denise," which was helping another commercial boat, the "Tradition," which had been fishing for squid. Both are based out of Shinnecock. 

There had been a fire in the engine room, causing it to be disabled and go adrift about 69 mile south of Shinnecock.

The "Rhonda Denise" crew tried to tow the 63-foot disable vessel, but the towline parted and they were unable to re-establish the line due to the weather conditions. Winds were blowing at 20 to 25 knots, and seas were 5 to 9 feet with water temperature at 44 degrees, the Coast Guard said.

Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound Command Center in New Haven, Conn., could not reach the crew on the "Tradition," and the "Rhonda Denise" to stay near the disabled boat until the Coast Guard cutter could get there. A maritime assistance request was broadcasted and a Coast Guard cutter and an aircraft from Air Station Cape Cod were launched. The helicopter brought a communications package the "Tradition."

“The coordination effort throughout the response for the disabled fishing vessel Tradition was paramount,” Petty Officer 1st Class Morgan Gallapis, an operations unit watchstander at Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound Command Center, said.

”Our command center coordinated communications between a boat tracking company and the samaritan vessel Rhonda Denise who assisted the vessel Tradition by attempting to tow the vessel and remain on scene providing communications until the Coast Guard was able to establish direct communications," she said. "Due to weather conditions deteriorating and forecasted gale conditions offshore and a disabled vessel with no electricity drifting; we made the determination to send our cutter to tow the vessel back to port.”

The Coast Guard Cutter Sanibel, from Woods Hole, Mass., towed the fishing vessel Tradition more than 68 miles back to Shinnecock Inlet where Station Shinnecock’s crew relieved the tow and moored it on the town's fish pier.