EDITOR’S NOTE — To see video of the rescue (appropriate browser plug-in required), click on http://cgvi.uscg.mil/media/main.php?g2_itemId=1893646 .
PORT ANGELES — A Coast Guard helicopter crew rescued two men and a dog from a small boat blown away from a Whidbey Island shore by 45 mph winds and 5- to 8-foot swells.
Petty Officer Nate Littlejohn said a MH-65 Dolphin helicopter dispatched to the scene Monday morning from Air Station Port Angeles found the men and dog adrift in an 18-foot boat about a mile off Long Point in Penn Cove with no engine, sail or other means of propulsion.
The helicopter crew lowered a rescue swimmer and hoisted both people and the dog to safety.
Littlejohn said the men were checked at Whidbey General Hospital in Coupeville and released.
The men said they had been adrift in the choppy waters for about two hours after being blown away from the shore while trying to trailer the boat.
The Coast Guard did not identify the men. There was no report on what happened to the boat.
