Cruise ship rescues stranded mariner off Oregon coast

A cruise ship rescued a Canadian man stranded on his boat nearly 500 miles of the Oregon coast on May 26, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

The 74-year-old man, who the agency did not name, was sailing from Hawaii to British Columbia when his vessel ran into gale-force winds and 30-foot high waves. The 29-foot boat’s engine failed and the mast broke, injuring the man’s shoulder.

He’s made the same trip four times before, Coast Guard officials said, and had food, water, a life raft and a life jacket on board. The mariner used his handheld satellite communicator to contact the U.S. Coast Guard’s Northwest District, which the agency used to track him.

He was rescued 489 miles off the coast of Tillamook.

“This mariner’s experience and preparedness allowed the Coast Guard and other agencies to communicate with him and effect a rescue,” Coast Guard Northwest District Search and Rescue Program Manager Scott Giard said. “His foresight to bring a satellite communicator averted a tragedy.

Coast Guard officials deployed a C-27J cargo plane from Sacramento, California, to function as their “eye in the sky” as they coordinated the rescue because he was so far from the shore.

The plane assessed the state of the sea and the damage to the vessel. It was also equipped with life rafts, communication gear and rations that could sustain a survivor while responders coordinate the rescue, officials said.

Coast Guard officials contacted a cruise ship, the Silver Whisper, that went 120 off its charted course to rescue the stranded Canadian man. The Coast Guard found the Silver Whisper by tapping into its Automated Mutual-Assistance Vessel Rescue system, a global network that tracks the positions of commercial ships that participate in the program.

Eder Campuzano is the local news editor for the Statesman Journal. He can can be reached at ecampuzano@statesmanjournal.com. Find him on Bluesky at @ederc.bsky.social or Threads @ederc.