VIRGINIA BEACH

A 53-year-old woman having trouble breathing was rescued from a cruise ship 30 miles offshore Thursday and transported to a Beach hospital, officials said.

Three city firefighters and three emergency medical technicians helped with the rescue, said Ron Darling, a captain with the Virginia Beach Fire Department.

The Beach personnel were taken aboard the 87-foot-long cutter Albacore, which rendezvoused with the Grandeur of the Seas, a 916-foot long cruise ship operated by Royal Caribbean Inc.

In four to six-foot seas, the cutter maneuvered alongside the moving 2,446-room cruise ship to pick up the woman, he said. She was taken to Virginia Beach General Hospital.