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Emergency crews were called shortly after 5 p.m. Thursday, July 5, after a 23-foot boat lost power about three miles north of Cutchogue, according to Southold Town Police.
The 18-year-old operator told dispatchers that a 16-year-old boy and 16-year-old girl who were on the boat had jumped into the water without life jackets.
Due to the strong current and winds in the area, the teens were pushed further away from the boat.
More than a dozen police and fire marine units, including the Cutchogue Fire Department, Suffolk County Police Department and a US Coast Guard helicopter, fanned out looking for the teens.
At one point, 911 dispatchers told the boat’s operator to shoot flares in the direction he last saw them.
Rescuers eventually spotted the girl swimming more than three miles east of the boat. The boy was found a short time later roughly 200 yards away from her and four miles from shore.
Both swimmers were “at the point of exhaustion,” according to the Cutchogue Fire Department.
They refused treatment from medics and were reunited with their parents.
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