US navy rescues sick baby from stricken boat 900 miles out to sea

Parents called for help after one-year-old girl fell ill hundreds of miles from Mexican coast during round-the-world sailing trip
Kaufman family
Eric and Charlotte Kaufman with their daughters, Lyra, who fell ill, and three-year-old Cora. Photograph: AP

A US navy vessel has rescued a family with a sick one-year-old child from a damaged boat hundreds of miles off the Mexican coast and is heading to San Diego to take the girl for medical treatment.

The girl, her parents and three-year-old sister were helped on to an inflatable raft and then taken aboard the USS Vandegrift, where the ill toddler was in a stable condition, the US Coast Guard said.

Charlotte and Eric Kaufman were two weeks into their trip to sail the world when their daughter Lyra developed a fever and a rash covering most of her body.

Their 36-foot boat Rebel Heart lost steering and communication abilities about 900 miles off Mexico. They sent a satellite call for help to the coastguard on Thursday.

A California Air National Guard crew parachuted into the water and reached the boat on Thursday night. The crew stabilised the girl and stayed with her until the ship arrived.

Lyra had suffered salmonella poisoning before the family set out, but doctors had given her a clean bill of health to travel, her aunt Sariah Kay English said.

English initially was in daily email contact with the family but realised something was wrong when the communication stopped several days ago. English said she was told the vessel took on water every time the motor was turned on.


But English said the couple were always careful. Eric Kaufman is a coastguard-licensed captain who introduced sailing to his future wife during one of their early dates.

"They were not going into this blind. I knew they were doing this wisely," English said. The couple made a network of friends who travelled around the globe with children, and always stocked the boat with more food than they needed.

"They were very overcautious. They're not new at sailing." Unfortunately, she said, "sickness sometimes happens".