In what's being described as a rescue that could easily appear in a "blockbuster disaster film," the Navy and US Coast Guard have managed to rescue a woman, her 7-year-old daughter, and two pets off Hawaii in a days-long mission. They were aboard a 47-foot French-flagged sailboat nearly 1,000 miles from Honolulu that issued a distress call on Saturday, Aug. 24. The 47-year-old woman reported the boat's captain was dead and she and her daughter needed to be rescued as they were "beset by weather" and located directly in the path of the looming Hurricane Gilma.
A plane dispatched to the area managed to see flares the woman lit but could not make contact with her amidst 20mph winds and 6-foot waves spun up by the approaching hurricane. USA Today reports the intensity of the conditions led the Coast Guard to seek help from the Navy, which dispatched the USS William P. Lawrence to attempt a rescue. It arrived on the 26th, but as both the weather and the boat's condition worsened—CBS News reports swells of 25 feet were forecast—the teams determined they had just six hours to make a rescue happen.
Using a small boat, they navigated 8- to 10-foot seas and managed to retrieve the woman and the girl, as well as their cat and tortoise, per a Facebook post from the Coast Guard. The man's body could not be removed due to the conditions; it remains on the boat, and no information has been provided about how he died or why the boat was in Gilma's path. (More rescue stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
