I just got off the phone with Ricardo Castrodad, the public affairs officer for the U.S. Coast Guard in Puerto Rico, regarding last weekend's sinking of the 48-foot Swan sailing yacht Victoria. The Coast Guard is now making new information available about the loss of this popular charter yacht, and it corrects several early reports, including our original report here on CharterWave.


According to Castrodad, the Coast Guard station on Puerto Rico first received notice of Victoria's distress about 4 a.m. on Saturday, May 29, after Victoria struck a submerged object that destroyed its rudder and caused it to sink.


The distress signal was sent by way of a 406-megahertz EPIRB signal that owners Martha Cabada and her husband, Klaus, had onboard their life raft, Castrodad said.


"This is an important distinction, that it was a 406-megahertz EPIRB," Castrodad told me today. "It automatically sends a signal by way of satellite to our control center, providing the approximate location of the device. It can start automatically, when it gets wet, or it can be operated manually. This type of EPIRB also lets you register personal information with NOAA [the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration], and he had inputted information saying that he was transiting from St. Thomas to Panama. That is key information to help us pinpoint the location."


The precision of the EPIRB information, Castrodad said, allowed the Coast Guard to launch its aircraft quickly and get rescuers exactly where they needed to be. Victoria sank about 100 nautical miles south of Mona Island, Puerto Rico, and the couple's life raft was "really out there in the middle of nowhere," Castrodad said. "Their location stretches the limit of how far our helicopters can reach. With a rescue that far out, there is not much time to actually hoist survivors up into the helicopter. It will run out of fuel."


By about 7:30 a.m., Castrodad said, the crew of the Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen MH-65 Dolphin helicopter had deployed a rescue swimmer to bring Victoria's owner-operators safely onboard. This means Victoria's crew spent several hours in their life raft, not more than 24 hours as was previously reported by multiple media, including CharterWave.


The 87-foot Coast Guard Cutter Reef Shark was diverted to the scene to advise vessel traffic in the area of the ongoing distress, and a Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater C-130 aircraft was diverted to scene to search for possible survivors. Also searching for Victoria's survivors was the motor tanker Navigator Success, which responded to the Coast Guard notice of distress.


Victoria's owners were taken to Air Station Borinquen in the Puerto Rico city of Aguadilla, where they were transferred to U.S. Customs and Border Protection port entry officers. As of today's writing, they are still recovering at a home on Tortola.


"In this case, the EPIRB equipment and the way they registered it saved their life," Castrodad said. "If other mariners would practice what this couple did, it would help not just the Coast Guard, but all rescue organizations. A hundred miles is a long way from shore. You can drift the wrong way and never be found. They were very lucky in that life raft."

Written by: Kim Kavin
Kim Kavin is an award-winning writer, editor and photographer who specializes in marine travel. She is the author of 10 books including Dream Cruises: The Insider’s Guide to Private Yacht Vacations, and is editor of the online yacht vacation magazine www.CharterWave.com.