An 18-foot sailboat overturned in Hog Island Channel near Cape Cod in Massachusetts, leaving 12 people in the water, calling for help.
Thankfully, a Good Samaritan en route to Maine came to the rescue.
Martin Van Breems of Norwalk, Connecticut, and his crew on the “Disco Volante” boat were traveling from Norwalk to Portland.
Van Breems teaches sailing lessons and said he tries to make the trip at least every couple of years.
This year, when he and his students were in the Hog Island Channel they came across an overturned sailboat with 12 people in the water calling for help.
“The first thing we did is Whim (co-captain) went down below and called the mayday, initiated the mayday call, and we told them what we saw.”
Part of the Coast Guard mayday call obtained by WGME can be heard “Mayday, mayday, mayday there appear to be 11 people in the water over.”
“One child is missing submerged under the vessel. Over.”
Wednesday was a day Martin Van Breems said he will never forget.
Before seeing the overturned sailboat, Van Breems said he and his students had just finished a lesson on the water: How to rescue people from the water and bring them aboard a sailboat.
“It was so ironic,” Van Breems said. “We had been practicing getting people on board the boat.”
Hours later, he and his students were putting that lesson into action.
“They were screaming and waving and shouting in the water,” Van Breems said.
After making the mayday call, the crew deployed a lifesling and tossed it to the people in the water.
“They were holding on very tightly, and we brought them on board,” Van Breems said.
Nine of the 12 people who were once on the sailboat were aboard the Disco Volante.
Van Breems said one child was stuck underneath the sailboat.
Thankful, a nearby diver heard the mayday call over the radio and pulled the child out.
“I was reaching and searching through debris,” Mike Margulis, a professional diver, said. “I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, and I saw the life jacket and I was able to pull through an overturned hull and get a young adult.”
Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England and surrounding agencies came immediately.
Officials said one child remains in the hospital.
Van Breems said he’s happy he was in the right place at the right time. He has been in contact with the family and said he’ll be praying for them.
“We’re obligated under ‘the law of the sea’ to stop help other people and render assistance,” Van Breems said.