Crew Abandons Vessel in Storm; Rescuers on Way

A Coast Guard cutter from San Diego and other ships and aircraft were heading to the rescue of the crew of a San Pedro-based vessel who abandoned their stricken ship after it was battered by Hurricane Darby off the Mexican coast, the Coast Guard said.

Earlier Monday, the Coast Guard helped rescue another crew headed for Newport Beach that was caught in the same storm, said Lt. John Davis of the Coast Guard operations center in Long Beach. That crew was headed to Port Hueneme on a merchant vessel that picked them up Monday afternoon.

The storm appeared to be moving away from the 10-member crew of the San Pedro boat, the 60-foot fishing vessel Tutor, who were riding out the storm on a bobbing life raft.

The crew had radioed at 7 p.m. Sunday that they were caught in 100-m.p.h. winds and 25-foot swells. There is no radio contact with the raft, but three Coast Guard C-130 transports from Sacramento and a Navy P-3 patrol plane from Moffet Field took turns flying over the life raft while four ships headed toward it, about 150 miles west of Cabo San Lucas.

The storm-tossed crew was too far from shore to be reached by helicopter, Davis said.

The nearest of the four vessels heading for the raft, the merchant ship Lakambini, was about 150 miles away Monday evening and was not expected to reach the crew until sometime today, Davis said. Meanwhile, aircraft would remain overhead, he said. The planes were refueling in La Paz, Mexico, he said.

Other vessels head for the raft were two Mexican navy ships and the Coast Guard cutter Morganthau, dispatched from San Diego on Monday afternoon.

It was not known whether any of the 10 people on the raft were injured, Davis said.

Airplane crews overhead said the Tutor was still afloat late Monday, though it had lost its pilot house windows and rudder.

On Monday evening, winds were measured at about 58 m.p.h. and swells were 15 to 20 feet, Davis said, and the hurricane was moving away from the area of the raft.

But, Davis cautioned, “We’re having trouble with the weather conditions. It’s really tiring for the flight crews.”

One of the C-130s involved in the Tutor rescue attempt had flown over another stranded crew that was eventually rescued Monday.

The yacht Oasis, which had been headed to Newport Beach from Florida, reported Sunday that it was caught in 90-m.p.h. winds and 25-foot seas 120 miles southwest of Cabo San Lucas.

Seven people were aboard the 70-foot yacht, which lost one engine to fire and two pilothouse windows.

The merchant vessel Chiquita Roma, out of the Bahamas, was the first boat to reach that scene about 12:45 p.m. Monday and rescued the crew, one of whom might have suffered a broken arm, Davis said.

The Chiquita Roma was expected to reach Port Hueneme on Wednesday.