How the Coast Guard Saved a Lone Sailor from a Deserted Island Nightmare

A lone sailor who was sail­ing solo in the Caribbean sea faced a ter­ri­fy­ing ordeal when his boat broke down and left him strand­ed on a desert­ed island for three days. 

The man, who is a 64-year-old Bahami­an nation­al, had no food, water or shel­ter on the remote and unin­hab­it­ed Cay Sal island in the Bahamas. He was in grave dan­ger of dying from dehy­dra­tion, expo­sure or worse.

But his luck changed when he man­aged to fire flares that caught the atten­tion of a U.S. Coast Guard air­crew who were fly­ing a rou­tine patrol over the area. The hero­ic air­crew spot­ted the flares and quick­ly locat­ed the dis­tressed man on the tiny island that has no res­i­dents or vis­i­tors. They dropped vital sup­plies of food, water and a radio to the man and estab­lished con­tact with him.

The man told them he had been marooned on the island for three days after his ves­sel became dis­abled dur­ing his solo voy­age. He had no way of call­ing for help or sig­nal­ing to any pass­ing boats. He was relieved and grate­ful to see the Coast Guard res­cuers who saved his life.

The Coast Guard air­crew took the man into cus­tody and trans­ferred him to Bahami­an author­i­ties. He was in good phys­i­cal health con­sid­er­ing his har­row­ing ordeal. Coast Guard watch­stander Pet­ty Offi­cer Dev Craig praised the man for hav­ing flares on board, say­ing they were cru­cial for his res­cue. He also remind­ed mariners to have prop­er emer­gency sup­plies and safe­ty gear on board, as sail­ing solo can be risky and unpredictable.

This dra­mat­ic res­cue sto­ry shows how the Coast Guard plays a vital role in pro­tect­ing and sav­ing lives in the Caribbean sea. It also shows how a lone sailor sur­vived a desert­ed island night­mare thanks to his flares and the Coast Guard’s vigilance.