Couple rescued after boat capsizes

FROM THE U.S. COAST GUARD

Two people are safe despite spending more than two hours in the water without life jackets after their boat capsized about 10 miles northwest of Racepoint, off the northern tip of Cape Cod Mass., Monday.

Boat operator Charlie Maclean, 23, and his girlfriend Claire DeLarbre, 20, both of Marshfield, Mass., were trying to bring a tuna on board their 23-foot SeaCraft when the boat capsized, tossing them into the ocean.

About two hours later, the operator of a passing boat, Miracle II, spotted the couple, pulled them out of the water, and called Coast Guard Sector Boston. The sector dispatched a 25-foot boat from Coast Guard Station Point Allerton in Hull, Mass. The boat crew met the Miracle II offshore, brought Maclean and DeLarbre onboard and took them to Green Harbor, Mass., where Maclean's mother met them.

"They were in a really dangerous situation, so we're relieved that someone happened to come by, see that they were in trouble and help them out," said Chief Petty Officer Gerald Welton, a search and rescue controller at Sector Boston.

"But, this accident is a true example of how quickly things can go wrong and why it's so important for boaters to wear a life jacket any time they're underway."