THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 5, 1996 TAG: 9606050345
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: 38 lines
An emergency distress beacon used by mariners is taking the ``search'' out of the Coast Guard's search and rescue mission, as a father and son learned when they were picked up in a life raft nearly 400 miles at sea this week.
The men, from Bethesda, Md., were adrift off the coast of North Carolina after their 40-foot sailboat lost its keel on a trip to Bermuda, Coast Guard officials in Portsmouth said. The pair's sloop-rigged boat apparently capsized and later sank.
But the men activated their Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) about 4 p.m. Monday.
The device, increasingly popular among recreational boaters, signaled their position to an orbiting satellite, where it was relayed to rescue coordination centers on shore.
The Coast Guard launched a C-130 aircraft from Elizabeth City, N.C., that located Robert Bragan, 39, and his son, Timothy, 19, about 9 p.m.
Rescuers contacted a nearby merchantman, the 777-foot Italian container ship URSA Major, with another Coast Guard system called the Automated Mutual Vessel Rescue System (AMVER) - a voluntary, worldwide ship reporting system that enables the Coast Guard to chart the positions of 2,700 ships in every ocean of the world.
The URSA Major picked up the Bragans at midnight, said Coast Guard officials. The ship was scheduled to arrive off the Delaware coast today.
Another mariner was rescued recently with the help of EPIRB and AMVER systems as well, the Coast Guard said, when the American merchant ship Green Wave was diverted and rescued a man from his life raft 950 miles east of Cape May, N.J., on Friday.
He had strapped his EPIRB to his body.
KEYWORDS: RESCUE COAST GUARD BOATERS by CNB