A husband and wife were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard after they fell overboard when their boat ran aground off of the Maine coast Tuesday morning.
The Coast Guard says they responded to the call for a 30-foot pleasure craft that had ran aground off of Seawall Point in Southwest Harbor around 11 a.m.
When they got there, the driver of the boat, an 86-year-old man, tried to row a small boat to the Coast Guard's rescue boat, but he and his wife fell overboard without life jackets.
A Coast Guard surface swimmer immediately got into the water to save them.
“It was a really unique situation and it happened so fast,” the Coast Guard's surface swimmer, Petty Officer Calvin Legge, said.
The Coast Guard's Cmdr Jamie Frederick says not having life jackets made "a dangerous situation much worse."
Southwest Harbor's harbormaster and a good Samaritan also helped, the Coast Guard says.
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The boat is still aground, but is expected to be re-floated at high tide Tuesday night.
