On Saturday, the Civil Guard rescued three young men who were spearfishing off Santa María del Mar Beach in Cádiz after their boat was left adrift, putting them in a situation that the Civil Guard described as “imminent drowning.” The three crew members—Spanish men aged 20, 22, and 26—were eventually transported to the Puntales Naval Base in good health, while their boat ultimately sank.
The incident occurred around 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, when the Civil Guard received a report from the 112 emergency service alerting them to a boat with three crew members adrift while they were spearfishing. The added difficulty was that, at the time the distress call was made, the exact location of the boat or its occupants could not be provided.
Given the lack of precise information about their exact location, the Civil Guard immediately dispatched a patrol boat from its Provincial Maritime Service in Cádiz, which promptly began search operations along the Cádiz coast.
A Spectacular Two-Part Rescue
The search yielded its first results off Santa María del Mar Beach. At 11:00 a.m., half an hour after the alert was received, the patrol boat located the first of the three young people in the water and proceeded to rescue him immediately.
However, locating the two remaining crew members proved more difficult, so the Civil Guard requested assistance from Maritime Rescue, which added an aircraft to the search operation. The collaboration between the two agencies quickly paid off: just ten minutes later, at 11:10 a.m., the two young men who were still in the water were spotted from the air and picked up by the Civil Guard patrol boat itself.
The three rescued individuals were taken to the Puntales Naval Base, where it was confirmed that they were in good health despite the scare they had experienced at sea. Their boat did not fare as well: the vessel, about four meters long and equipped with a 20 CV outboard motor, eventually sank after drifting during the search-and-rescue operation.
The outcome—with no serious injuries—highlights the speed of the coordinated response between the Civil Guard’s Maritime Service and Maritime Rescue, whose joint efforts made it possible to locate the three young people within just forty minutes of receiving the initial alert.
