Why didn’t Gilligan think of that?

It was in the 1960s when seven people set sail on what was scheduled to be a three-hour sightseeing tour from Honolulu but got caught in a storm and end up stranded on an uncharted island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

This was the basis for Gilligan’s Island, an American sitcom that aired for three seasons which followed the comic adventures and unsuccessful attempts to escape their plight. The two-person crew of the charter boat SS Minnow and five passengers were never rescued, as a fourth season was expected but then canceled. So much for closure…

But an update from the US Coast Guard brought back the memories when they rescued three boaters after their 26-foot vessel lost propulsion and was drifting toward a reef near Gilligans Island in Puerto Rico. While the television series was filmed on land in Los Angeles, this island was named after the show.

The owner aboard the 26-foot boat had radioed Coast Guard Sector San Juan over VHF channel 16 at approximately 4:50 pm., reporting the vessel was disabled and drifting toward a reef, which led to the rescue with the vessel towed to a local marina. That’s 60 years of rescue progress!