ANACAPA ISLAND : Coast Guard Cutter Rescues 4 Divers Stranded on Boat

Four scuba divers from Thousand Oaks were rescued by a Coast Guard cutter near Anacapa Island early Tuesday after an outboard motor on their boat malfunctioned.

Fortunately, the skipper of a passing freighter from Taiwan knew just enough English to call in the boat’s general position to the Coast Guard after spotting a flare shot from the boat, a Coast Guard spokesman said.

One of the stranded divers, Jeff McNabb, 29, said the four had been scuba-diving for about five hours and were making their way back to Channel Islands Harbor Monday evening when the boat’s motor went dead.

“We were in the freighter lane and we had two pretty close calls” when two freighters passed close to the boat, McNabb said. “That was our real concern.”

McNabb said they shot flares from their 20-foot inflatable boat that were spotted by passing freighters.

The first call to the Coast Guard was from a Taiwanese freighter, “but nobody could translate Chinese,” he said.

Actually, said Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Reid Crispino, the freighter’s skipper spoke just enough broken English “so that we pieced together a general area north of Anacapa” to search for the boat.

A short time later, a Coast Guard helicopter spotted a blinking diver’s light being flashed from the boat.

A Coast Guard cutter was called in, which rescued the four divers about 5 a.m., Crispino said.

McNabb said he and his friends were in good condition.