BREMEN (AP) — When a boat came loose from its moorings during a windy storm in Maine this week, it wasn’t spotted by a local, but by someone thousands of miles away in California watching a webcam.

The 39-foot sailboat Dido drifted onto an island off the coast of Bremen on Wednesday as winds reached 50 miles per hour.

Terrell DeVaney of California spotted the boat while watching Explore.org’s osprey-cam, a webcam that monitors the activities of a pair of ospreys that nest in the area.

DeVaney told the Portland Press Herald (http://bit.ly/1l9OMmA ) she was checking to see if the ospreys had returned when she spotted the boat.

DeVaney notified the Coast Guard and Maine Marine Patrol, which contacted the local harbormaster. The harbormaster had the boat towed to safety with minimal damage.

filed under: