A couple in their fifties aboard a 16-metre boat that was heavily taking on water from the propeller shaft was rescued by the coast guard. It happened in the afternoon while the boat was sailing about 12 miles off Cecina (Livorno). The yacht, they explain from the harbor master’s office, with a man and a woman from the provinces of Bergamo and Venice, had left from Marciana Marina, on the island of Elba, and was headed for La Spezia. The man at the helm, having noticed a slight slowdown in speed and a slightly more aft trim of the boat, went below deck, thus discovering the abundant infiltration of water. He immediately launched the Mayday.
A patrol boat immediately set off from the port of Livorno in the direction of the yacht and from the port of Cecina also a fast boat. The Livorno Operations Room hijacked a fishing vessel that was nearby and, maintaining constant contact with the crew in difficulty, advised the two boaters to head for the coast and to take the first actions in case of any need of abandoning the boat, putting on life jackets and preparing the life raft.
The tourist port of Cecina was also alerted for prompt intervention upon arrival of the yacht, then reached by military patrol boats. The two on board, very frightened, were reassured. The coast guard escorted the vessel to safety as far as the port of Cecina. There the boat, taken under tow by the mooring men, was harnessed and hauled out for repairs.
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