U.S. Coast Guard Details Multi-Day Rescue of Mom, 7-Year-Old Daughter and Their Pets Stranded Off Hawaii

Mar. 15, 2025

The U.S. Coast Guard recently undertook a dayslong operation to rescue a mother, her young daughter and their pets who were stranded in the Pacific Ocean, along with a deceased man’s body, during Hurricane Gilma.

The rescue efforts initially began on Aug. 24, when officials received a distress alert approximately 925 miles east of Honolulu from the Joint Rescue Coordination Center (JRCC) Honolulu at 12:33 p.m local time, accordingto a news releasefrom Coast Guard officials in the Pacific.

Upon arriving at the scene of the alert, a U.S. Coast Guard airplane crew saw a 47-foot sailboat, flying under a French flag, and heard a mayday call from a 47-year-old woman aboard the vessel reporting that she and her 7-year-old daughter were in need of rescue and that a man’s dead body was on board as well, the release states.

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While in the midst of weather conditions that included “6-foot seas and 20 mph winds,” a Coast Guard airplane crew was unable to establish “direct communication with the woman but saw her light two distress flares and observed the sailboat drifting and taking waves over the beam,” officials said.

To further assist in the rescue, Coast Guard officials requested support from both the Navy and theSeri Emperorvessel, a Singapore-flagged, 754-foot liquid petroleum gas tanker that was 290 miles from the sailboat and 18 hours away.

With just six hours to complete the rescue, theWilliam P. Lawrencealong with a boat crew from the Navy rescued the woman, her daughter and their pets, a cat and tortoise, from the boat, officials said.

The man was identified as the boat’s master. It’s not clear how he died. (Representatives from the Coast Guard did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for additional comment.)

On Wednesday, Aug. 28, the mother, daughter and their pets arrived at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu and received care from the Coast Guard and the Honorary Consul of France in Hawaii, per officials.

The sailboat currently remains adrift “1,000 miles east of Honolulu,” the Coast Guard said.

source: people.com