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Three sailors and a dog that were rescued from the sea after their boat sank will arrive in Bermuda tomorrow.

The British married couple, a Belgian man and a dog were plucked to safety from a life raft in the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday after their boat sank in a storm.

U.S. coast guards helped coordinate the rescue of Leonard Rorke, 55, Lisa Rorke, 50, from Peterborough along with their Jack Russell Terrier, Dexter, about 900 miles northeast of Bermuda.

Belgian Henri Worthalter, 29, was also recovered from the damaged life raft.

Today the British newspaper The Daily Mail reported that the Rorkes’ 15 metre yacht, Blue Pearl, sank on Thursday after being badly battered from two days of storms.

Yacht owner Mr Rorke, from Peterborough, said: ‘We were preparing to die."

In the recording of the rescue’s debriefing, he said: ‘We were bailing water. It was life and death. We’re very grateful. We are very, very lucky.”
Coast Guard officials were notified on Thursday by the International Rescue Centre after a message came in saying people were in a life raft and needed help.

Media reports stated that Coast Guards from Portsmouth, Virginia, issued a call for help about 6:30pm to any commercial ships in the vicinity of the life raft.

Three ships answered the call and diverted their course to aid in the search.

The boat’s crew had an electronic position-indicating radio beacon in the life raft that allowed the Coast Guard to direct ships toward their location.

Mr Rorke said the sailboat sank after the bulkhead broke up and the vessel began taking on water.

The ordeal ended about 12.30am after the Tilda Kosan diverted course from its planned trip to Mexico. The ship found the life raft after making three passes in dark, stormy conditions. 

The ship is now heading for Bermuda and expected to arrive at Five Fathom Hole at around 4pm when the three sailors and their dog will be brought into Bermuda.

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