The Coast Guard hovercraft Penac has responded for two rescues off the Sunshine Coast in the last week.
On Aug. 13, about 7:30 p.m., the Coast Guard received a call to respond from a commercial tugboat, the Comox Crown, after its crew recovered a swamped kayaker, according to Mike Stacey, a Coast Guard officer and search and rescue co-ordinator.
Stacey said the victim was a 42-year-old man who was kayaking alone and had swamped about eight kilometres out from Keats Island.
"It turned out that this gentleman wasn't travelling with anybody. He was fairly well equipped in terms of food and supplies, but not very well equipped in terms of safety gear," Stacey said. "He was fairly heavily loaded with supplies and food and personal items and apparently there was no spray skirt in evidence. That's a normal bit of gear that kayaks should have in open water that may have contributed to his predicament."
Stacey said the Comox Crown crew applied first aid to the moderately hypothermic man before he was taken on the Penac to a waiting ambulance in Vancouver. He was released from hospital later in the evening.
Stacey said the incident can serve as a caution for other kayakers.
"The message would be, if you're going to go out on the open water make sure you have a properly equipped kayak and some way of signalling if you do get in trouble," he said.
The Penac headed for Keats Island again on Monday morning, Aug. 17 after a medical emergency.
"A local person advised that one of his neighbours had suffered a possible stroke, a man in his 70s. The patient [was] taken over to the Coast Guard Sea Island hovercraft base," Stacey said.
He said he had no other details on the man's condition.
Stacey said the Penac is not always dispatched for emergencies around Keats, but may often be sent depending on its availability and the location of other Coast Guard vessels.
