Coast Guard rescues 3 people abandoning ship 150 miles off North Carolina coast
Mariner pulled up into Coast Guard helicopter after abandoning their boat during bad weather. (United States Coast Guard / FOX Weather)
CAPE HATTERAS, N.C. - Three mariners who were stranded at sea after their sailboat was caught in bad weather as a storm lashed the East Coast were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard.
The agency was notified Wednesday afternoon that the mariners were about 150 miles off the North Carolina coast and worried bad weather would cause their 59-foot sailboat to capsize.
The boaters said they weren't in distress at the time of the report, but then early Thursday morning, the mariners requested to abandon their boat.
Watchstanders then sent out a rescue helicopter crew and an airplane crew out from their air station in northeastern North Carolina to find the mariners.
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The helicopter crew located the boaters at 9:30 that morning, 154 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras.
Video from the rescue shows the mariners being repelled by a cable up into the helicopter from the open ocean below.
The U.S. Coast Guard repels down to a mariner floating in open ocean off North Carolina's coast. (United States Coast Guard / FOX Weather)
The three people were all safely aboard the aircraft 30 minutes later, USCG said.
At the time of the rescue Thursday, the sea was 6-10 feet high and winds were gusting between 17 and 23 mph, according to the Coast Guard.
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But a strong cold front that brought damaging winds to the Eastern Seaboard and severe weather threats to North Carolina earlier this week swept into the offshore waters Wednesday. The National Weather Service had gale and storm warnings in effect for the far offshore waters for gusts of 40-55 knots and seas over 10 feet.
A buoy about 200 miles from Cape Hatteras reported wind gusts of at least 40 knots as the front approached.
None of the mariners were injured.