Jan. 19 — A man and woman were rescued from a tiny capsized sailboat by a passing oil tanker after four days adrift at sea, officials saidWednesday.
Juliet Savage, 27, and Timmy Attard, 30, tried to sail Attard's 16-foot catamaran around St. Maarten Saturday afternoon but about an hour out to sea the boat capsized, Attard said.
One of the boat's pontoons filled with water, forcing the other pontoon into the air, said Attard who works as an engineer on a charter boat on the Dutch and French shared island.
Attard said he thinks a car may have backed over one of the fiberglass pontoons, cracking it.
Both Dutch and U.S. Coast Guard boats and planes searched for Savage, a British citizen, and Attard, of Malta, for four days before the crew aboard a Liberian oil tanker spotted the capsized boat late Tuesday, said Coast Guard spokesman Lt. j.g. Eric Willis.
Bound for the Hovensa oil refinery, the 590-foot tanker's crew pulled Savage and Attard aboard about 46 miles south east of St. Croix.
"A three-hour tour, eh?" joked Attard by telephone from St. Croix.
Attard said when the two water bottles and chocolate bars they brought with them ran out, they resorted to eating seaweed and drinking rainwater.
Doctors examined Savage and Attard in St. Croix but found no injuries, Willis said.
Back Talk

Share your reaction to this news with other Source readers. Please include headline, your name, and the city and state/country or island where you reside.