…they were drifting for 13 days in the Atlantic
The Guyana Defence Force Coast Guard Friday rescued three fishermen and their vessel from the Atlantic Ocean where they had been drifting for 13 days.
The crew and their vessel were found in waters off the North West district coast.
Girdojan Surujpaul, his brother Jairam Surujpaul, and their cousin, Lochan Teserdeen, had set out on a fishing trip in Captain Sunil, just off the foreshore at LBI on Saturday, July 31.
Their engine conked out at the mouth of the Demerara River. They started to drift away from the shore.
Lieutenant Andre Cush, said that on Wednesday last the men’s relatives provided the Coast Guard with coordinates which approximated the position of the Captain Sunil and its crew in the open seas. The next day the Coast Guard embarked on a search and rescue mission, dispatching two motor life boats with an officer and seven ranks on board.
The team found the men alive and well, with their boat intact, at 12:05h on Friday.
They were 11 nautical miles from the coordinates which the team had been given, at a remote area called “Calm Water’ in the North West District.
The men were immediately provided with fresh water and food and they were towed, in their disabled vessel to the Coast Guard Base at Morawhanna in the North West, where they rested and contacted their relatives.
The men were brought to Port Georgetown Saturday afternoon and they were met by their relatives Coast Guard Ship Hinds.
Owner of the fishing vessel, Winston Goriah, also praised the Coast Guard for a job well done and said that he was grateful that the men had been brought safely back to their families.