A 58-year-old woman is recovering in hospital and a 59-year-old man is presumed drowned after an incident on a sailboat Monday night in Commercial Bay, between Newcastle and Protection islands.
The two lived on the sailboat together.
Nanaimo RCMP Const. Gary O’Brien said the first 911 call, reporting a woman seen falling in the water, came in about 8:40 p.m. It was reportedly preceded by witnesses hearing 45 minutes of “a heated discussion” between a man and a woman.
A Nanaimo Port Authority vessel took police to the scene, where the woman was found “literally clinging to life,” O’Brien said. “She was hanging onto the sailboat by a rope.”
Officers pulled her out and she was extremely hypothermic and severely intoxicated. She was in stable condition in hospital Tuesday afternoon.
A search for the man, who was also reported to be in the water, ensued with a helicopter and a coast guard hovercraft, O’Brien said. Nothing was found in the water or on the sailboat, he said.
There has also been an extensive search along the shore.
The RCMP dive team and two RCMP vessels were checking the area Tuesday.
Police said the last known clothing the missing man was wearing consisted of a blue and black shirt, blue jeans, and either runners or flip-flops. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the Nanaimo RCMP non-emergency line at 250-754-2345, and quote file #2022-12274.
