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Satellites Lead to Rescue of 2

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Associated Press

Two California men are crediting a $200 emergency locater transmitter and two satellites with saving their lives after their 30-foot sailboat became disabled 650 miles north of Honolulu.

A private salvage boat towed the Agape II into Honolulu on Friday.

Steve Beu and Dix Whitecotton of Huntington Beach left Honolulu’s Ala Wai Yacht Harbor on Aug. 30 headed for Huntington Beach. Four days out, they lost the sail rigging, and on Sept. 10 the engine quit.

They activated the emergency transmitter that a Coast Guard spokesman says was detected first by a Soviet search-and-rescue satellite and then by a U.S. satellite Sept. 12.

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The Coast Guard dispatched a C-130 aircraft that homed in on the signal and located the disabled sailboat the following day.

The Coast Guard made arrangements for the salvage boat to tow the Agape II back to Honolulu.

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