Storm Gilma: Mother And Child Evacuated From Screen Boat Dragged 925 Mil In Hawaii, Captain Dies

Rescue operations. (Source: Chief Warning Officer 2 Lance Watson/US Navy)

JAKARTA - A woman, child and pet were rescued from a sailing boat after being stranded 925 miles off the coast of Honolulu, Hawaii during Hurricane Gilma.

As Hurricane Gilma went berserk in the Pacific late last month, Coast Guard in Hawaii received an emergency call from a sailing boat stranded in a storm.

The boat was 925 miles east of Honolulu. The rescue mission lasted for several days, with the help of the US Coast Guard and Navy Guard.

Responding to the call, officials at the Joint Honolulu Rescue Coordination Center received an emergency warning from the sailing boat at around 12:33 p.m. local time on Saturday, according to a press release from the Coast Guard, reported by CNN September 4.

The crew managed to find the French-flagged Albric ship and heard an emergency call from the woman inside. The mother and child are both French citizens, according to a spokesman for the Coast Guard.

The 47-year-old said she and her 7-year-old daughter, a cat, and a turtle had to be saved, after bad weather left them stranded.

Although flight crews were unable to make direct contact with the woman, they saw her release two flares. At that time, the waves reached 6 feet and the wind was blowing at a speed of 20 mph, according to a Coast Guard report.

The Coast Guard asked additional crew from the Navy to assist with rescue missions.

On Sunday at around 9 a.m., women and their daughters were seen waving their hands on board by nearby crew members.

"The crew failed to communicate with the two sailors by calling them via radio and dropping a message block," the Coast Guard said.

In the afternoon, at around 5:20 p.m., the tanker crew arrived near the ship but were unable to save the woman and her daughter due to weather conditions from Hurricane Gilma.

Finally, at around 5 a.m. Monday, USS William P. Lawrence, a guided-missile destroyer, arrived at the scene and a rescue mission began. Due to the condition of the sailing boat and the weather, the crew had only six hours to save the woman and child safely.

The crew of the small ship managed to launch from the Navy ship and made contact with the sailing boat, which led to a rescue.

When the rescue team arrived, they found a woman, her daughter, their pet, and a dead man who the authorities said was the ship's captain.

After the evacuation, the naval ship shifted and arrived at the Pearl Harbor-Hickam Joint Base in Honolulu on Wednesday night, where the mother and child received treatment.

The body of the man who died could not be found due to weather conditions and the sailing boat was still off the coast nearly 1,000 miles east of Honolulu, the Coast Guard said.

The cause of the man's death and the reasons behind why they were on the boat on the storm line are still under investigation, a Coast Guard spokesman told CNN on Friday afternoon.

During a rescue operation by USS Lawrence, Hurricane Gilma was about 480 miles east of the ship and had a maximum wind speed of 110 mph near the storm center, according to a report by CNN meteorologist Chad Myers.

After easing, Hurricane Gilma continued to move west towards the final position of the known sailing boat and was within 100 miles of the ship with a wind speed of 60 mph.

"Through tireless planning, coordination, and teamwork, our supervisors set up key elements needed for such dynamic search and rescue cases," said search and rescue mission coordinator Kevin Cooper.

"We are grateful that the Series of Emperors and William P. Lawrence were able to save the mother and daughter, who were trapped right on the path of Hurricane Gilma," he added.