BES island — In the afternoon hours on Sunday the 13th of August, the central control room received a report of a vessel in distress. The vessel had engine trouble and drifted in the sea waters between St. Eustatius and St. Maarten. In the meantime, it turned out that a second vessel had also had engine trouble about 4 nautical miles from St. Eustatius.
A rescue operation was immediately launched up to 13 nautical miles on the northwest side of St. Eustatius. At around 2:45 pm the second vessel was escorted to Gallows Bay and moored there at a buoy. The KMar was notified and they took over the immigration process.
At that time the first vessel was still missing. At approximately 5.45 pm the capsized first vessel was spotted by pilots of the Winair, 13 nautical miles northeast of St. Eustatius. The people on board this vessel were without a trace. The Coastguard called off the search for tonight regarding the exact location of the vessel and will continue the search tomorrow.
In the morning hours on Monday, the 14 th of August the vessel was found and towed by the St. Kitts and Nevis Coastguard to the harbor on Saba. All four people who were on board of this vessel were safe and sound.
