A small vessel adrift for seven days, carrying 14 Cubans who had exhausted their supplies of drinking water, was rescued last week through a combined effort of uniformed services in the sea off Cayman Brac.
Three of the group required “critical medical attention” a police press release stated.
The search-and-rescue mission was sparked after three other Cubans had arrived “irregularly” on the Brac in the early morning of Thursday, 27 Oct.
The three told officers who met them from the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service and Customs and Border Control, that they had passed another vessel about 55 nautical miles northeast of Cayman Brac some 18 hours earlier. They reported the vessel had broken down and was adrift with a large number of occupants.
The Cayman Islands Coast Guard Operations and Rescue Coordination Centre began coordinating the search-and-rescue operation, with the police helicopter dispatched to search the water east of Cayman Brac.
The RCIPS Air Operations Unit team, aboard the X-Ray 2, began their search out towards Cuba around 10am, with the support of “drift analysis” from the US Coast Guard.
Within half an hour, the vessel was spotted 18 nautical miles east of Cayman Brac.
“On investigation [the crew] saw that there were signs of distress amongst some of the boat occupants, and that others were signaling for help,” the release stated.
Officers from the Cayman Islands Fire Service and CBC, coordinated by the Operations and Rescue Coordination Centre, launched from Cayman Brac to conduct the rescue, with the support of a private yacht, which assisted with transport back to the island.
Police said it took two hours for the rescue team to arrive after the vessel was first sighted by the helicopter.
Anticipating what was referred to in the press release as a “time delay” to complete the rescue, the helicopter crew lowered two gallons of fresh water to the vessel and a crew member communicated with the occupants in Spanish “to inform and reassure them of the rescue efforts”.
A total of 13 men and one woman were found onboard the boat, which had suffered engine failure, leaving it adrift for seven days.
All occupants on board, including the three who required urgent care, were brought to Cayman Brac where they received medical attention and were processed.
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