July 17, 2020 — Two mariners were 15 miles off Cape Lookout — on North Carolina’s Outer Banks — Thursday morning when their boat caught fire and started taking on water.
One of mariners aboard the 35-foot fishing boat, named Double G, made a mayday call to the Coast Guard Sector North Carolina, according to a news release from the Coast Guard.
The two then threw on life jackets, grabbed a satellite phone and abandoned ship on a life raft, the release says.
Watchstanders with the Coast Guard put out an urgent marine information broadcast in response to the mayday call and launched a boat crew to the scene in a 47-foot motor lifeboat, the release says.
A Navy oiler nearby, hearing the Coast Guard’s broadcast, also sent a helicopter crew to the scene to assist.