5 Aboard When Stonington-Based Sailboat Sinks Off North Carolina Coast

STONINGTON, CT — Five people were rescued when a Connecticut-based sailboat sank hundreds of miles off the coast of North Carolina on Thursday.

The boat was from Magic Bus Charters and became disabled due to "extreme conditions."

"Thanks to the calm and quick thinking of our lifelong friend Buster Pike, the steady teamwork of the crew, and the heroic efforts of the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy, incredibly, everyone made it home safe and sound," Magic Bus Charters wrote on Facebook.

The boat was about 260 nautical miles offshore of Cape Hatteras when it began taking on water, according to a Coast Guard press release.

The Coast Guard received a distress call from the crew reporting that their vessel was taking on water and all five people aboard were abandoning ship into their life raft.

A Coast Guard helicopter located the raft with all five people abord. The helicopter "successfully recovered all five individuals from the life raft in good health," the statement reads.

The survivors were taken to Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City.

Magic Bus is a "family-owned yacht that charters in Staniel Cay, Bahamas, and New England" and is based in Stonington. The charters head to the Exumas, a group of over 300 islands off the coast of the Bahamas.

"We will be back, not to start over but to continue what the Bus began: helping more people experience the beauty, peace, and wild simplicity of life in the Exumas. The boat may be gone, but the magic she shared is very much alive."