The yacht was sailing under a British flag around 662 kilometres northeast off the island of Ponta Delgada when the unusual incident happened.
The Portuguese navy was dispatched to locate the three Britons, aged between 41 and 61, on their yacht, the ‘Destiny of Scarborough’.
They were located and then picked up “in good health” by a Liberian Merchant ship which took them to the port of Avilés in northern Spain.
“To aid with the evacuation, one C-295 aircraft was dispatched from the Lajes airbase and a P3-C from the Beja base, to locate and oversee rescue operations” the Navy said in a statement.
The rescue was carried out at 3.25pm local time.