Los Angeles - Rescuers plucked a seriously ill American baby girl and her family from a sailboat in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday and transferred them to a US Navy frigate that will take them back to California, the US Coast Guard said.
The family was put into an inflatable raft then helped aboard the USS Vandegrift, which arrived early on Sunday to rescue them from their crippled sailboat about 1 600km off Mexico's Pacific coast, the Coast Guard said.
The San Diego family had been two weeks into a cruise around the world on an 11m vessel called the Rebel Heart when the youngest child developed a fever and rash, prompting her parents to send a satellite distress call to the Coast Guard on Thursday.
Eric and Charlotte Kaufman and their daughters, Cora, 3, and Lyra, 1, were in stable condition and would undergo further medical evaluations, the Coast Guard said in a statement. The frigate was en route to California and the voyage was expected to take a day or two.
“The timeframe will really depend on the weather, but we are expecting an arrival of early this week,” said Lieutenant Anna Dixon, a spokeswoman for the Coast Guard.
The California Air National Guard's 129th Rescue Wing had dispatched a military transport plane and a team of four men on Thursday to provide immediate medical assistance, according to spokesman Second Lieutenant Roderick Bersamina.
The rescuers, laden with medical gear and other supplies, parachuted from the plane into the ocean, inflated a dinghy, motored toward the boat and boarded to treat the girl.
“They took it upon themselves to do whatever necessary to save her life,” Bersamina said.
The rescuers then remained on the sailboat with the family while they waited for the Navy ship to arrive. Bersamina said the child's ailment was not confirmed but her condition has stabilised.
The Kaufman family had left from Mexico on March 19, sailing toward islands in the South Pacific and eventually New Zealand, according to www.therebelheart.com, where they have been writing about their sometimes-stormy voyage.
Her husband, Eric Kaufman, describes himself as a US Coast Guard captain and certified dive master.
In a post on her blog on March 26th, one week into the journey, Charlotte Kaufman said the endeavour was proving difficult.
“I think this may be the stupidest thing we have ever done,” she wrote. “Why did we pick such a hard way of travelling? Stupid.”
There were no plans to sink the stranded sailboat, Charlotte's sister, Sariah English, said in a message posted on Facebook. Instead it would be tagged and left behind.
Search and rescue missions are typically paid for by the Coast Guard, said Lieutenant Dixon, who added she could not comment on whether this rescue would be different. - Reuters