A squad of marine search and rescue volunteers got a little extra training Wednesday night when they were tasked with tracking down two errant kayakers in Howe Sound.
Having just concluded their night’s exercises, the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue team was just pulling up to the dock at Horseshoe Bay when a father flagged them down.
“This gentleman . . . was running down the dock, looking somewhat frantic and waving his arms,” said RCM-SAR coxswain Ian Grantham. “His kids were missing.”
The teenaged kayakers had headed toward the Sunshine Coast three hours earlier but hadn’t left a trip plan or taken any means of communication.
“He’d told them to be back before the sun was set and they weren’t back yet,” Grantham said.
Despite having “no idea where to go,” the RCM-SAR crew scoured the darkening sound from Snug Cove to Gambier Island.
They were still searching when the Coast Guard alerted them to two kayakers on Bowyer Island who seemed “a little confused.”
They were a little cold and a little wet, but “certainly relieved and certainly happy” to see the marine rescuers, Grantham reported.
They ferried the duo and their kayak back to Horseshoe Bay and their anxious father.
“We had a little discussion about taking out a radio and/or a phone and/or letting people know where you’re going,” Grantham said.
The incident is a reminder for kayakers to exercise caution, according to Grantham.
“Much the same as when you’re going hiking in the back woods, tell someone where you’re going, when you’re going to be back, and have a method of communication.”
Kayakers should also be cautious of ferry traffic, he warned.
“A little kayak with a couple people in it sometimes does not show up on radar,” Grantham said.
