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4 people saved from icy waters after workboat sinks off Vancouver Island

The boaters managed to survive for 45 minutes in the water before being located
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Emergency personnel were on scene at the dock to help the four boaters after being rescued. (Canadian Coast Guard photo)

Four people were rescued from icy waters last Wednesday night, thanks to the Port Hardy Lifeboat Station crew.

“When a 25ft workboat with four people on board issued a mayday call stating their windows were smashed out by waves and the vessel was taking on water, vessel of opportunity MV Coastal Server spotted their flares,” stated the coast guard in a post on social media. “Our crew in an open fast response craft found four people huddled together in the water. They’d been in the water for 45 minutes.”

According to the coast guard’s post, crew members quickly began to perform “an extremely challenging patient transfer to our larger vessel, so that the four people could receive treatment for hypothermia. The quick response by our Port Hardy crew and the MV Coastal Server, and the safety equipment employed by the people on the workboat, gave this incident a happy ending.”



Tyson Whitney

About the Author: Tyson Whitney

I have been working in the community newspaper business for nearly a decade, all of those years with Black Press Media.
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