Ridge volunteer firefighters report that they were called out amid Friday night’s severe thunderstorm to rescue two people on a sailboat sinking off shore from St. Mary’s College.

Firefighters gathered at the firehouse that night after hearing of the National Weather Service’s storm warning, according to an online report by firefighter David Morris, and a St. Mary’s dispatch log states that a call about the boat came in to St. Mary’s 911 dispatchers shortly after 11:30 p.m. from Margaret Brent Hall on Mill Field Drive. Second District and Webster Field firefighters also were dispatched to the call, along with Ridge and Lexington Park rescue volunteers.

The Ridge firefighters responding with a rescue engine vehicle and boat found the sailboat about 30 yards from shore, with its two occupants still on board.

Two firefighters made their way to a rock jetty about 15 yards from the sailboat, Morris wrote, and the firefighters were able to call out to the people on the sailboat. Once they determined that no one was injured and the two people on board were in no immediate danger of losing their lives, the Ridge fire boat receded to ensure the safety of the firefighters aboard.

A plan was devised, Morris wrote, for the two people on the sailboat to get into their life boat, and the firefighters assisted in a rescue by rope tow that successfully brought both of the sailboat’s occupants to land. A woman on the boat said that it was securely anchored until a collision with another vessel, and that she was taken to a hospital to be treated for a torn ligament and injured wrist.

Body of boater recovered near Calvert shore

The Maryland Natural Resources Police reported that they recovered the body of late Sunday of a missing boater, Angel Giovani Ayala Cerros, 26, of Alexandria, Va., in the Chesapeake Bay near Chesapeake Beach.

The heavy winds and high seas associated with Friday night’s storm caused the boat he was on to overturn and capsize, according to police. Four other people who were on the 12-foot vessel at the time of the accident were rescued about 4:20 a.m. Saturday after being located by the Coast Guard.

The capsized vessel was later found approximately 1¼ miles from shore, police reported, continuing that the four survivors were wearing life jackets at the time of the accident. However, Cerros became separated from his life jacket during the accident.

jwharton@somdnews.com

Staff writer Laura Dukes contributed to this report.