The Pacific is a huge expanse of open ocean, and oddly enough the container ship Horizon Reliance happened to be in the right place at the right time for the second time this year.

AMVER reports this evening that the Horizon Reliance, an AMVER program participant, rescued an 81 year old male from his sailboat today about 1,100 miles ENE of Oahu.

The situation began as a possible medical evacuation and resulted in personnel from the U.S. Coast Guard Fourteenth District using an AMVER surface picture to identify and divert the U.S. flagged container ship to rescue the sick sailor.

This was the second rescue in just over four months for the Horizon Reliance. On February 8th, 2012 the container ship diverted and rescued three Canadians after their sailboat sank 280 miles northeast of Hilo, Hawaii.

Once Captain Costanzi, master of the Horizon Reliance, had the elderly sailor in the ship’s hospital, his crew provided medical treatment and kept the sailor comfortable. The Horizon Reliance is sailing to Honolulu and is expected to arrive on June 13th.

The Horizon Reliance, managed by Horizon Lines of Charlotte, NC, enrolled in Amver in 1990 and has earned participation awards for 21 years.