Hypothermic man found submerged and ‘clinging to piling’ in Cowichan Bay water rescue

Royal Canadian Marine Search & Rescue crews rescued a man in Cowichan Bay after his boat capsized, leaving him submerged. (Courtesy: RCMSR)

A boater is grateful for the services of local rescue groups after being left stranded in the cold waters of Cowichan Bay after his vessel capsized.

Crews were called to a report of an overturned boat in the bay, located on the east coast of southern Vancouver Island, around 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon, said Mark Winfield of the Sar-34, Cowichan Bay Royal Canadian Marine Search & Rescue station.

Winfield said they arrived to find the capsized vessel “pretty quickly” but were unable to locate the man.

“There were bits in the water floating around the boat, but no sign of the person,” said Winfield.

“We went towards the industrial dock on the estuary, the closest point where someone might swim to, and as soon as we got there, we saw someone clinging onto the piling,” he said.

Clutching onto the steel piling, the man was still “fully submerged up to his shoulders,” said Winfield. The man was conscious, but was suffering from hypothermia.

“We had to pull him into the boat, he wasn’t able to climb in himself … we went at speed straight back to the dock and handed him in to an ambulance.”

The Canadian Coast Guard arrived a few minutes after the rescue and aided the RCMSR crews in recovering some of his possessions from the water, he added.

With English not being the man’s first language, the crews had had trouble clarifying why the boat had capsized, but given the type of vessel - a small, flat bottomed aluminium boat - it’s likely the man could have simply lost his balance, Winfield said. It is believed the man had been fishing in the area.

“They are not very stable boats, so if you stood up and moved it’s quite easy in one of those vessels to capsize it.”

The man and his wife, who later Saturday connected with the rescue team to collect the vessel, were “very grateful” for the crew's assistance, he said.