The owner of a tugboat company believes two of his crew members saved the lives of a husband and wife who were struggling in strong currents after their two-person kayak overturned southeast of Nanaimo.
“Our crews are some of the best in the industry,” Daryl Jones, of Jones Marine Group, said Thursday.
It was only a quirk of fate that the rescue tug was in the area in the first place.
Another crew member on the Sea Imp XII tug had called in sick on Wednesday, meaning that there would not be a full crew. Instead of completing a regular shift, the decision was made to bring the tug from Nanaimo to port in Chemainus.
On the way south, crew noticed a faint light in water by Dodd Narrows and near Mudge Island. “They saw some light where there shouldn’t be,” Jones said.
They took the tug in that direction and heard calls for help.
“Then they knew something was wrong and they went directly to the scene and rescued a man and his wife.”
It appeared the two-person kayak had flipped over, throwing the man into the water. The woman remained in the kayak, keeping her head above the water, Jones said.
The man had been trying to swim to shore, but “they were being carried by the current,” he said.
They couple were wearing headlamps, which had provided what was a “very dim” light seen by the crew.
Crew members pulled the couple to safety on board the approximately nine-metre-long tug and ferried them to nearby Mudge Island. Jones thinks they had been going from Cedar to the island, where they have a cabin.
The man was exhausted when he was rescued, Jones said.
The tug’s crew gave the couple warm clothes. They were met on Mudge Island by emergency responders.
The pair had cellphones and had called 911 for help. Canadian Coast Guard vessels from Nanaimo and Ladysmith were sent out, but were called back when they learned the matter was resolved, the Joint Rescue and Co-ordination Centre.
