SAN DIEGO -- A U.S. Navy warship (click here) reached a crippled sailboat hundreds of miles off the Mexican coast and was preparing Sunday to complete the rescue of a sick 1-year-old girl.
The transfer of the child from the 11-metre boat to the ship was expected to start around dawn, Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Barry Bena said Sunday.
"Sometime this morning as soon as they get some light they are going to take the child off the boat and bring her aboard the naval vessel," Bena told The Associated Press.
A small boat will be used to carry out the operation and it will be safer during daylight, especially since the child's condition has stabilized, the spokesman said.
The girl's family -- parents and a 3-year-old sister -- were about 1,450 kilometres off Mexico on a cruise around the world when they sent a satellite ping for help to the U.S. Coast Guard on Thursday about her illness....