NC dinner cruise boat with 50 people has engine failure, runs aground

Click here to view the press release issued by the U.S. Coast Guard.

PORTSMOUTH, Va. — The Coast Guard along with a local fire department crew and a good Samaritan assisted a dinner cruise boat Friday that encountered engine trouble and later became grounded in the intracoastal waterway near Surf City, N.C.

The captain of the Belle of Topsail contacted Coast Guard Sector North Carolina watchstanders at approximately 6:55 p.m. reporting the boat had engine trouble, and they were anchored with 46 passengers and four crew aboard.

Sector North Carolina watchstanders launched a crew aboard a 41-foot Utility Boat from Coast Guard Station Wrightsville Beach, N.C., to assist. Pender County fire department boatcrews responded as well.

The Coast Guard crew along with the fire department boatcrew arrived on scene and began transferring the 46 passengers from the Belle of Topsail to the sport fishing boat Big Daddy where they were taken to shore at the Beach House Marina in Surf City.

A good Samaritan aboard the Big Daddy took the Belle of Topsail in tow and took the cruise boat to its homeport in Surf City.

There were no reports of injuries.

– See more at: http://www.uscgnews.com/go/doc/4007/1823111/Coast-Guard-locals-assist-grounded-dinner-cruise-boat-near-Surf-City-NC#sthash.RUr3cmLf.dpuf

 

By Professional Mariner Staff