A recent search and rescue operation off the coast of Sechelt avoided tragedy thanks to quick action and coordination between Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue Unit 14 (RCMSAR14) and the crew of the tugboat Ocean Greg.
RCM SAR unit coxswain Morgan Beall received the call just after 9 p.m. on Aug. 11.
It was a pan-pan alert — a marine emergency broadcast — reporting two 17-year-old paddleboarders missing in turbulent water. “It was strong winds, rough seas… by the time we got there, [the daylight] was completely gone. It was only moonlight,” Beall said. “It was really a race against time.”
The tug Ocean Greg, leaving the gravel pit in Sechelt, responded immediately. Despite towing a barge in adverse conditions, the crew dropped their load and located the girls. “They had the radio on, they acted. They took the initiative. Honestly, I think it was them who saved the girls,” Beall said.
RCM SAR arrived shortly after and performed a pacing maneuver — a careful boat-to-boat transfer — to bring the girls aboard safely. “They were just in bathing suits, wet hair, but surprisingly enough, their phones were dry,” Beall noted. “If it wasn’t for their phones… it would also be a very different story.”
Beall said the girls had drifted roughly two miles off the Sechelt Wharf and about a mile and a half from Selma Park. He emphasized how quickly conditions can change on the water and how difficult it is to locate someone without a life jacket or reflective gear. “When somebody doesn’t have that and they depend just on their paddleboard… It’s pretty tough. There’s nothing reflective for us even to see with radar.”
Beall addressed the circumstances that led up to the incident. “Lots of people go out on paddle boards and they don’t have PFDs… when the conditions change and it gets dark, you lose your paddle, you have no way to communicate. That’s just a recipe for disaster,” he said. “It really can happen to anybody.”
He praised the community response and the professionalism of his volunteer crew. “When you know how close you come to a different ending, you’re super grateful for the outcome we had. It reinforces why we do this work.”
Jordan Copp is Coast Reporter’s civic and Indigenous affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
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