Saturday, May 22, 2010Local officer lost at sea.
Time of Call: 1645, Time of Launch: 1745
Road Town Police relayed a distress call from a boat adrift off Jost Van Dyke. The vessel had an inop engine and the onboard phone battery was dead. The initial call was placed at 1000; this call had been passed through a colleague who had dispatched non-VISAR boat to search for the Officer. USCG Helo requested and VISAR sent out regular Securite calls on VHF channel 16. Spirit began doing search patterns west of Jost Van Dyke and then headed north. Two other vessels joined the search and the USCG began search pattern and relay with Spirit. Helo located the casualty at 2045 and Spirit had him aboard at 21.03 and set off to return to Road Town.