September 22, 2024
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Sailboat crashes on rocks; lobster boat runs aground

SOUTHWEST HARBOR – A 47-foot sailboat crashed into rocks in Jericho Bay Friday morning, sending an elderly woman to the hospital, according to Ensign Gabe Somma, spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard.

Ruth Parker, 82, of Rockland, was admitted to Maine Coast Memorial Hospital, where she was listed in stable condition Friday evening, according to a nursing supervisor.

Somma said the Coast Guard sent two rescue boats to the scene when it received the distress call at 9 a.m. Jericho Bay is located between Marshal Island and Egg Rock, near Bass Harbor.

Parker suffered cuts to her face and possible broken ribs when the sailboat Reindeer struck rocks. She was taken to Bass Harbor by the Coast Guard and then transported to the Ellsworth hospital by ambulance, Somma said.

The sailboat was being operated by Maxwell Manning of Madison, Conn., Somma said. The crash is still under investigation.

Also Friday, the Southwest Harbor unit responded to a grounded lobster boat, which ended up on Babbidge Ledges in the East Penobscot Bay. Somma said the boat, the Miss Jenny, got caught on the rocks when the tide went out. The lobstermen waited on a Coast Guard vessel for high tide to return Friday night in order to assess the damage to the boat.

The boat was listing at a 45-degree angle, Somma said.

Somma did not know the names of the operator and crew.

At about 6 p.m., the Coast Guard received another distress call, this time from two women who had run aground with their sailboat, Gallatea, on Western Island, also located in East Penobscot Bay. An 8-year-old girl was on the boat with the women, Somma said.

The mother of one of the women sent friends out to get the stranded trio, while the Coast Guard remained with the lobstermen, Somma said.

The women did not have any food on board and little water, Somma said, but were not in any danger.

Somma said the women had moored the boat and were stranded when the tide went out.

The Coast Guard was monitoring the situation by staying in contact with the women, who had a cell phone but no radio, Somma said. He could not immediately say where the women and girl were from.


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