Wayward boat towed to port

By Brandon Masuoka
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Coast Guard last night rescued two men aboard a 34-foot cabin cruiser who became lost at sea about 30 miles west of the Big Island yesterday afternoon.

The Coast Guard cutter Washington reached the boat, La Cristina, just before 9 p.m. last night and towed it to Kailua, Kona on the Big Island, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Lauren Smith. The boaters and the boat were all right, Smith said.

The boat ran into trouble on its way from Kona to Maui yesterday afternoon, Smith said.

One of the men aboard used a cell phone to call a Coast Guard small-boat station on Maui at 3:04 p.m. to say they were "lost and disoriented," Smith said.

The station relayed the distress call to the Coast Guard Group Honolulu at 3:09 p.m., Smith said. Soon thereafter, the cutter Washington, which was near the Big Island, responded to the scene, followed by a C-130 airplane at 5:07 p.m. and an HH-65 Dolphin helicopter at 5:30 p.m., Smith said.

The cruiser had an emergency beacon called an "electronic position indicating radio beacon," or EPIRB, that alerted the Coast Guard to the boat's position approximately 30 miles west of Miloli'i, Smith said.