Stranded boaters rescued from waters off northern Beaufort County

Beaufort Water Search and Rescue helped two stranded boats in northern Beaufort County on Saturday.

The group received a call about 2 p.m. stating three people were on a broken-down boat in the Beaufort River, and launched two boats to assist, according to search and rescue spokesman Dick Jennings. The rescue boats located the disabled vessel within an hour and towed it to Factory Creek boat landing on Lady’s Island.

At about the same time, a call came in for a separate disabled vessel, whose occupants had no idea where they were. Two rescue boats searched for at least an hour before the group launched two more boats to scan the Morgan River, Coosaw River, north end of Beaufort River, Otter Island area and Jenkins Creek.

“The scary part was they had their anchor out and the tide was taking them with it out toward the ocean,” Jennings said. “So we just kept looking.”

Eventually, the lost boaters spotted a fishing barge and the landmark helped their rescuers change direction and locate them off Morgan Island and Egg Bank in St. Helena Sound at about 5:30 p.m., Jennings said.

They towed the disabled boat to the Jenkins Creek boat landing. All occupants were returned safely, Jennings said.

This story was originally published March 13, 2016 at 6:04 PM with the headline "Stranded boaters rescued from waters off northern Beaufort County."