Woman dies after escaping family’s burning boat, being stranded on island off Cape Cod for more than 30 hours

The woman, her husband, and another son fled their burning boat off the Cape on Tuesday morning. They made their way ashore and were stranded on remote Naushon Island for more than a day until they were airlifted out by the Coast Guard.

The father, Patrick Sullivan, is still being treated in Boston for burns, but he is awake and “breathing on his own,” Chris Sullivan said. When he was first rescued, “he was struggling to breathe” and had a tube put down his throat.

Son Tyler Sullivan is awake and talking, Chris said.

The family had set out in their boat, a 33-foot Chris Craft called Third Wave, from Eel Pond in Falmouth on Friday.

Tyler awoke early Tuesday morning to the sound of the family’s dogs barking and saw “the entire back side of the boat was engulfed in flames,” Chris, 39, said.

Tyler tried to put out the flames with a fire extinguisher but the blaze was too big, so he rushed to get both his parents off the boat, which later sank, Chris said.

Tyler had to swim his mother to shore, Chris said, then go back out into the water for his father.

“My dad was just floating out there, basically just trying to stay afloat,” Chris said.

Cynthia Sullivan suffered from smoke inhalation and was in “rough shape,” he said.

Searchers received a mayday call from the family over marine radio at 7:09 a.m. Wednesday, according to a Coast Guard spokesperson.

“Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!” Tyler Sullivan called out over the marine radio. “Our ship went down in Tarpaulin Cove. Our ship burned while we were sleeping. We barely escaped.”

The Coast Guard released the audio of Sullivan’s responses to a series of questions as they tried to get specifics on his location.

“No, I am in the farmhouse at Tarpaulin Cove,” he said. “Right by the, uh, fricking lighthouse.”

He was apparently asked about the status of the family’s boat. “Yes, the vessel has sunk,” he said. “We are in the farmhouse on the hill.”

Volunteers from the Naushon Trust, which owns the island, located the family and administered first aid.

They were airlifted by a Coast Guard helicopter to Cape Cod Gateway Airport in Barnstable, landing at 9:13 a.m., and were taken to Cape Cod Hospital, Hyannis Fire Captain Ryan Clough confirmed to the Globe.

Anne Morse, managing trustee of Naushon Trust, issued a statement Friday after news of Sullivan’s death became widely known.

“We are very saddened to hear this tragic news,” Morse said in the statement. “We continue to send our thoughts and prayers to the family, and our sincerest condolences.”

According to the Trust, staffers received an emergency call at 7:20 a.m. Wednesday and launched a rescue effort.

“Naushon staff coordinated with the Coast Guard for a helicopter evacuation, stabilized the injured parties, and provided first aid according to their training,” the trust said in a statement issued before Sullivan’s death.

“They did a stellar job and we are very proud of their timely, professional, and caring response. The Naushon community is holding the injured boaters and their families in our hearts.”

Chris said his family members have gone to Tarpaulin Cove on Naushon Island several times each summer. Their latest trip began last Friday, Oct. 17, and was their “fourth time out there” this year, he said.

“They normally go out there, just hang in the cove, then they anchor in the cove and they come back,” Chris said.

But when they didn’t return home and calls to their phones went to voicemail, Chris said he called the US Coast Guard around 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

The Coast Guard searched for the boat, but it had already sunk by then.

“My brother told me he saw the Coast Guard boat flashing lights trying to find them, but he couldn’t flag them down,” Chris said, “and he couldn’t yell because his voice was too damaged from all the smoke inhalation.”

On the island on Tuesday, Tyler broke into a barn, where he found blankets and the radio he used to call the Coast Guard, Chris said.

“That’s where they were for over 24 hours, until the Coast Guard found them,” Chris said.

While fleeing the fire, Tyler was only able to get his parents off the boat, Chris said. The dogs that had alerted the family to the fire died, he said.

“It was too big at that point,” Chris said of the blaze. “He was able to get my parents off and he couldn’t take the dogs.”

Chris, who lives in Marstons Mills, said he used to go out with his family on the boat more often, but now he has small children, ages 4 and 2.

Cynthia Sullivan lived in East Falmouth with her husband, and they had their own house painting company, her son said.

“They had just semi-retired a few years ago,” Chris said.

A GoFundMe to raise money for funeral costs for Cynthia Sullivan had raised nearly $14,500 by Friday afternoon.

The US Coast Guard and State Police assigned to Cape and Islands District Attorney Robert J. Galibois’s office are investigating, Galibois’s spokeswoman, Danielle Whitney, wrote in an e-mail to the Globe Friday. She declined further comment, citing the open inquiry into the fatal boat trip.

Claire Thornton can be reached at claire.thornton@globe.com. Follow Claire on X @claire_thornto. John R. Ellement can be reached at john.ellement@globe.com. Follow him @JREbosglobe.