A 73-year-old woman has died from injuries sustained after her family’s boat caught fire off the coast of Massachusetts, forcing them to swim to a remote island where they were stranded for over a day before being rescued.
Cynthia Sullivan died Thursday, one day after the U.S. Coast Guard airlifted her, her husband Patrick, 72, and their son Tyler, 37, from Naushon Island. A family member confirmed her death in a social media post on Friday.
The family was sleeping aboard their 30-foot powerboat, The Third Wave, when it became engulfed in flames in Tarpaulin Cove overnight Monday. The family’s dog, who alerted them to the fire, perished in the blaze.
Forced to abandon ship, the Sullivans swam to the nearby island, located about four miles from Martha’s Vineyard. Injured and suffering from burns, the trio found shelter in a barn and remained there for more than 24 hours. Their ordeal ended when their marine radio washed ashore Wednesday morning, allowing Tyler to signal for help.
“Mayday, mayday, mayday, our ship went down in Tarpaulin Cove,” Tyler said in a radio transmission to the Coast Guard. “Our ship burned while we were sleeping, and we barely escaped.”
A Coast Guard helicopter crew located the family and transported them to Cape Cod Hospital. A multi-agency search had been initiated Tuesday night after the Sullivans were reported missing when they failed to return from their trip. Previous attempts to locate them were unsuccessful as their cell phones were lost with the boat.
In a Facebook post, another son, Chris Sullivan, paid tribute to his mother and provided an update on his father and brother. “She went in peace,” he wrote. “My dad is awake and breathing on his own. My brother saved both of them, he was able to get them off the boat under extremely chaotic circumstances, he doesn’t want to be called a hero, but he is.”
Scott Backholm, a search and rescue coordinator for the Coast Guard, said the family’s survival was a result of their preparedness. “Quick thinking and having quality equipment allowed the family to survive and call for help,” he said in a statement.
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