Colombia rescues 4 Koreans adrift in Caribbean

BOGOTA (AFP) ― The Colombian Navy has rescued four Koreans from their catamaran after it suffered a breakdown while sailing across the Caribbean, a Colombian official said Saturday.

“We responded to a call from the Korean embassy, which alerted us to a boat with four of its nationals aboard,” Commander Carlos Serrano said, in describing the Thursday rescue off the coast of La Guajira.

The quartet had been sailing from St. Martin, in the Lesser Antilles on the east end of the Caribbean, to Panama, when their vessel named the “Adventure” suffered a mechanical failure, Serrano said.

The crew, picked up by a Colombian Navy ship off the coast, “showed slight signs of dehydration,” the officer said.

Two weeks ago the Colombian Navy said it rescued a 71-year-old man after he spent three days adrift on the wreckage of a boat which he had been attempting to sail from Puerto Rico to the island of Curacao.