A 40-year-old Italian captain had to be rescued from a sailing vessel 20 miles north-east of Bermuda.

Bermuda Radio alerted Marine Police on Sunday at 3.45 p.m. about the Mi Reina, a 67 foot sail-boat that had an injured crewman onboard.

It had left Bermuda, heading to the Azores. However, rough seas offshore, made it difficult for the crew to return to the Island.

Marine Unit Rescue > and the MV GuardiI> which left from Barr's Bay in Pembroke, where dispatched with Police and medical personnel.

Rescu was the first to arrive on scene and provided the man with first aid treatment, after he sustained a laceration to his head after an accident with a spinnaker pole.

The MV Guardthen escorted Mi na to Ordnance Island in St. George's, where an ambulance was waiting to take the man to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital for treatment.

His injury was considered to be serious but not life threatening. He was subsequently released from hospital.