The Hastings father-and-son duo sailing 16,000km from America to Port Macquarie have Australian Marine Search and Rescue to thank for their dramatic rescue off the coast of Nantucket, just over two hundred nautical miles from the US coast.
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The US Coast Guard in Boston spotted an alert beacon from Jason and Reg McGlashan's Sedona about 4.50am local time, Monday. During a satellite phone conversation, Jason McGlashan told authorities the 43-foot vessel's sails were ripped and it was without power.
An MH60-Jawhawk Helicopter flew through near-Hurricane winds and winched the duo to safety just before 9am. They were dropped to Air Station Cape Cod at 10.50am and received treatment from emergency services.
Reg posted on his Facebook page that he "can't wait to be back in Oz and have a few VBs and wake up next to my wife".
Speaking from Port Macquarie on Tuesday, wife Lee McGlashan said it was "down to good old Marine Rescue in Australia, who then contacted the US Coast Guard".
"Reg is part of Marine Rescue in Port Macquarie so (he) knew what to do when they couldn't get in contact with the Coast Guard," Mrs McGlashan said.
The duo were lucky to be alive, with Mrs McGlashan saying she was on the phone to them during the extreme blizzard conditions.
"It was pretty horrific - the hail was going sideways it was that bad.
"If the boat had of tipped over they wouldn't have lasted five minutes in that freezing water."
The McGlashans are uninjured and recovering in Cape Cod, and are due to fly to Boston later today for a television appearance.
"That's if they can make it, because there's another blizzard on the way," Mrs McGlashan said.
