A Nicaraguan naval vessel that went missing in the Caribbean during Hurricane Rina has been found after two days adrift and all 29 people on board are "safe and sound," officials said.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega had ordered the ship to remove people from flood-prone coastal areas but contact was lost Sunday after the four crew had picked up 25 indigenous Miskito fishermen.

Authorities earlier had said there were 23 fishermen.

Civil defense chief Lieutenant Colonel Freddy Herrera told AFP that a shrimping boat was trawling when it chanced upon the missing navy boat and notified the authorities, who had been hunting for it for two days.

The naval vessel was one of three ships dispatched on Sunday by Ortega to help evacuate local Miskito residents from Sandy Bay, a coastal town north of the provincial capital Bilwi.

Driving rains have drenched Nicaragua for the past 12 days, leaving 16 people dead and an estimated 150,000 homeless or evacuated. Hurricane Rina is now taking aim for Mexico's tourist beaches on the Caribbean.