THE Civil Guard rescued in front of the Coast of Huelva to two people who had been adrift in a life raft for three days after their sailboat caught fire and sank. When they were spotted by the patrol boat, the crew members, dehydrated and malnourished, embraced each other and shouted after the odyssey on the high seas: “We’ve been here for three days!”
As reported by the Army Institute, last Saturday, while the patrol boat of the Maritime Service of the Civil Guard was carrying out the services of its specialty, they saw an orange reflection 40 miles (65 kilometers) off Isla Cristina ( Huelva). ). on the horizon. As they approached, the officers noticed that it was a life raft with two people on board asking for help.
The castaways explained to the agents that they were sailing along the Andalusian coast when their sailboat suffered a fire which caused it to sink, without being able to notify Maritime Rescue, but they managed to use the life raft, and three crossed it. days adrift, pushed by the currents and the offshore wind.
The survivors, “excited” to see that the Civil Guard was coming to their aid, “embraced each other and began to cry inconsolably”. “There was a fire on the sailboat. We have been here for three days. “Three days!” » they shout. “How many people were on board?” they ask. “Just the two of us.”
The agents offered them first aid, providing them with dry clothes and water, before being transferred to a health center, as they showed symptoms of dehydration and malnutrition, in addition to showing a state of distress. extreme exhaustion.
The Civil Guard managed to point out that without the intervention of the agents, the castaways could have suffered a “tragic outcome”, because after three days of drifting “they had exhausted their provisions and the cold was beginning to take hold”. toll.” » in your state of health.
