CAT ferry assists coast guard in response to sinking fishing boat
Both U.S. and Canadian coast guards responded to the call 100 km off the coast of Maine
A fishing vessel in distress caused a delay in the CAT Ferry's regular run Friday morning, as the high-speed ferry responded to the scene of a sinking fishing boat 100 kilometres off the U.S. coast.
Around 7:30 ET, a U.S. Coast Guard station in New England was alerted by one of four people aboard the fishing vessel Tyler that the boat was taking on water and its pumps were unable to keep up with flooding, said the coast guard in a news release.
Both U.S. and Canadian coast guards deployed aircraft to monitor the situation and help get the water off the boat.
CAT assisted
Don Cormier, the vice-president of operations and safety management for Bay Ferries, says when the CAT arrived, helicopters were at the scene dropping off pumping equipment and the ferry stood by until U.S. Coast Guard boats arrived.
He says this isn't the first time Bay Ferries has been called on to assist with rescues of this nature.
"Basically, being on a regularly scheduled ferry service, if there are vessels in the area that are in distress, it's certainly one of the vessels that would be equipped to respond," he said.
Behind schedule
The rescue situation set the CAT about an hour and a half behind schedule, but Cormier says he hopes customers won't mind.
"We basically are sure our customers well understand we'll probably be a few hours late leaving today but our crew and officers are always very diligent in their professionalism in responding to situations like this. They're just happy to be able to respond," he said.
With files from Cassie Williams