Coast Guard: 23 adrift for days rescued in Gulf of Mexico

NEW ORLEANS – The U.S. Coast Guard said it worked with a cruise ship to rescue 23 people adrift for days in the Gulf of Mexico.

A Coast Guard news statement issued Sunday saying 22 Cubans started travelling on a wooden boat from Cuba to Mexico before losing power and drifting three days. A Cuban-Mexican man took them aboard his sports fishing boat, but then its engines malfunctioned and the group drifted three more days.

The Coast Guard said it was contacted early Sunday by a brother of one of the Cubans. In addition to launching its own effort to find the disabled fishing boat, the Coast Guard alerted the Carnival Fantasy.

The cruise ship took the 23 people aboard within hours, about 130 nautical miles (210 kilometres) off Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

The statement said two of the people rescued had minor medical issues and were treated by medical staff on the cruise ship. It added that the 23 people would be transferred Tuesday to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Coast Guard Investigative Services in Mobile, Alabama.