By JUAN MCCARTNEY, Guardian Senior Reporter, juan@nasguard.com

Two Grand Bahama women are in the Rand Memorial Hospital today, after the pair and three men were rescued. The group was found clinging to the hull of a capsized boat on Tuesday morning, according to police.

The group of five; 21-year-old Leanisa Newbold, 26-year-old Ashton Donaldson, 21-year-old Marco Roberts, 26 year-old Quinton Joseph and 33-year-old Shawn Forbes set out from High Rock in a 17-foot fishing boat Sunday afternoon via the Grand Lucayan waterway, en route to Grand Cay, said police reports. The group was reportedly on the way to attend a function and planned to return to Grand Bahama later that same evening. Police said sometime that around 9:00 officer at the police dispatch center in Freeport, received information that the vessel experienced engine difficulties in the area of Mangrove Cay while on the return trip to Freeport and was drifting in the darkness.

The Bahamas Air-Sea Rescue Association (BASRA) was notified and set out at first light Monday, in search of the vessel and its occupants, police said. But it wasn't until about 9:00 a.m. Tuesday that Thomas Rolle of West End was out conducting a search, when he spotted the overdue vessel capsized in waters about one and a half miles north off West End, with the party of five clinging to the hull, police reports said.

They were taken aboard Rolle's boat and ferried into the Old Bahama Bay marina, then transported to the West End clinic for medical treatment as they were suffering from exposure, dehydration and hypothermia, police said.

Forbes, Roberts and Joseph were treated and discharged; however, Newbold and Donaldson were transported by ambulance to the Rand Memorial Hospital in Freeport, where they were treated and were being detained for observation.