Five fishermen were stranded on Nomans Land for more than five hours Wednesday, waiting for the U.S. Coast Guard to rescue them.

 

The fishing crew were aboard the Michelle Lane, laden with fish and bound for New Bedford when it ran aground at 1:10 a.m. off the south side of Nomans.

 

The crew contacted the Coast Guard about their predicament. At 9:56 a.m. the fishermen abandoned ship and sought refuge on Nomans.

 

The stranded men were Brandon Chase, Thomas Albee, Mike Train-ham, Mark Wrigley and Mike Mont­gerzero.

 

The Coast Guard picked up the men by helicopter at 3:20 p.m. — the time lapse was due to a more pressing emer­gency off Nantucket.

 

“They were in no immediate, life-threatening danger,” said Coast .Guard petty officer Kelly King. “Obvi­ously they were uncomfortable.”

 

The more pressing emergency was the rescue of the three people aboard the 32-foot sailboat Satori.

 

The Bermuda-bound vessel started taking on water 90 miles off Nan­tucket. The Coast Guard attempted to rescue the boat by helicopter, but the mast got in the way.

 

Then the Coast Guard dispatched its cutter Tamaroa. Because of the rough seas the cutter could not tow the sail­boat to safety. A smaller boat was sent from the 270-foot cutter, but its crew got into trouble. A rescue swimmer supplied the three people aboard Sa­tori with lifesaving provisions. Then a helicopter rescued the Coast Guard crew and Satori crew, plucking them from the water and transporting them to Coast Guard station Cape Cod.

 

The rescued Satori crew were Karen Stimpson, Sue Bylander and Ray Leonard, of Portsmouth, N.H.

 

Meanwhile the Coast Guard had been tracking an emergency position indicator radio beacon all day Wednes­day from the open sea south of Long Island.

 

The signal was traced to the 30-foot sailboat Bosara located 210-miles off­shore. The boat and its sailor, a 45- year-old Japanese man, were fine but the vessel had lost all steering.

 

The Coast Guard attempted to res­cue the sailor by air but couldn’t. The Air National Guard from Long Island was called to assist and sent a helicopter to the scene capable of refueling in the air. That helicopter was also un­able to rescue the sailor and because of the storm it was also unable to refuel.

 

The Air National Guard notified Coast Guard officials that they were going down. Vessels were sent to res­cue the five crew aboard the helicopter.

 

As of last night, four of the five were rescued by the Tamaroa. The Coast Guard was still searching for the fifth person.

 

The Coast Guard Cutter Spencer from Boston was sent yesterday to res­cue the Japanese sailor. The boat was expected to reach the man last night.

 

In another spectacular rescue earlier in the week, three Vineyarders were saved in the Atlantic after their sail­boat Cygnus was damaged in weather associated with Hurricane Grace.

 

Charlie Belden of Chilmark, Mark Hammarlund of Vineyard Haven and Kate Jarrell of Edgartown were sailing the 31-foot fiberglass boat from the Vineyard to Bermuda, the first leg of a trip to the Virgin Islands.

 

The three left Menemsha on Oct. 19. On Oct. 25 they found themselves in an intense sudden storm which ripped off the hatch, engine and sail batten.

 

They put on safety harnesses, loaned by John and Mary Clark of Vineyard Haven, and sent off emergency flares hoping to flag a barge on the horizon. They also transmitted their location by radio and radar. The barge did not re­spond.

 

The three were saved on Oct. 27 by CMV Oleander, a British container ship bound for Hamilton, Bermuda. They were about 110 miles off the coast of Bermuda and Grace was churning up the seas at the time of res­cue.

 

On Monday Kate Jarrell called her mother and reported that the three were safe. “We lost everything,” she said. “But we have everything.”