Man And Dog Rescued After Hurricane Helene Disables Sailboat, Coast Guard Video Shows

A man and dog who were sailing off the coast of Sanibel Island as Hurricane Helene approached Florida were rescued by the Coast Guard on Thursday. 

The unnamed man had been about 25 miles from Sanibel Island when his 36-foot sailboat became disabled and began taking on water, the Coast Guard said on social media. 

Video shows a Coast Guard member from Air Station Clearwater descending into the choppy ocean from a helicopter to reach the man and dog. Once the rescuer was close enough to the boat, both the man and the dog entered the rough water and were clipped into a rescue basket that was raised back to the helicopter. The last moments of the video show the man holding his dog and exchanging high-fives with his rescuers. 

The man and dog were brought to Southwest Florida International Airport, where they met with emergency services, the Coast Guard said. The pair were "reportedly in good medical condition," the agency said. 

The ship remains adrift and disabled, the Coast Guard said. 

Hurricane Helene slammed into Florida's Big Bend as a Category 4 storm on Thursday night, just hours after the rescue, bringing life-threatening storm surge, high winds and heavy rain to the region. As the storm raced inland, it was downgraded to a tropical storm. It is the fourth hurricane to make landfall on the Gulf Coast this year.