Saba News News and Information from Saba Island, Dutch Caribbean
In the afternoon hours on Sunday the 13th of August, the central control room received a report of a vessel in distress. The vessel had engine trouble and drifted in the sea waters between St. Eustatius and St. Maarten. In the meantime, it turned out that a second vessel had also had engine trouble about 4 nautical miles from St. Eustatius.
A rescue operation was immediately launched up to 13 nautical miles on the northwest side of St. Eustatius. At around 2:45 pm the second vessel was escorted to Gallows Bay and moored there at a buoy. The KMar was notified and they took over the immigration process.
At that time the first vessel was still missing. At approximately 5.45 pm, pilots of the Winair, 13 nautical miles northeast of St. Eustatius spotted the capsized first vessel. The people on board this vessel were without a trace. The Coastguard called off the search for tonight regarding the exact location of the vessel and will continue the search tomorrow.
In the morning hours on Monday, the 14th of August the vessel was found and towed by the St. Kitts and Nevis Coastguard to the harbor on Saba. All four people who were on board this vessel were safe & sound
KPCN
Spirit of Saba, A SABAN vessel with Captain Nicholas Johnson towed the St.Kitts boat into the Saba Harbour after being notifed and saved those souls on the vessel named “Playboy”.
Please edit your story for the true facts.
Saban fisherman never get credit with the amount of rescues, tows etc they are always performing and the coast guard always seems to be able to take the credit and land the applause. It’s not fair. Give credit where it’s due. If it’s the coast guard, applause. If it’s a local island fisherman, applause… but give the credit where it’s due.
Nicholas Johnson has many rescues under his belt and deserves this recognition and willingness to always provide assistance.
God bless our fisherman!
This is the second time I’ve seen reports where Saban vessels are not given due credit. Ryan Hassell with the vessel Navigator and Nicholas Johnson with his vessel Spirit of Saba. Also the Saba Conservation Foundation has been involved multiple times in towing vessels in distress.
This is why the Dutch Caribbean coast guard continues to be referred to as ” calm weather flies”. No respect.