Last week, Adam, our Pond Island supervisor, pulled off a daring escape!
A father and daughter were out kayaking around Pond, which is located in the mouth of the Kennebec River. They tried to land on Pond, but as it is a protected nature reserve, Adam went out to tell them that they could not land. As they were leaving, two other kayakers, a woman and a man without a life jacket, appeared behind them. The tide was low, and a strong current was ripping through the inlet with waves of four to five feet high. All four kayakers were pulled through the narrows and the father and daughter made it safely to the sand bar. The man and woman were not so lucky. They decided to try to turn once they started to really get pulled by the current, which meant they were beam on to the waves and both capsized. They were separated from their boats and the woman started screaming for help.
A volunteer on Pond ran to call the Coast Guard, who responded by saying that since the emergency was in a “shallow water” area, they would not get involved if they had to. Once Adam heard the woman screaming and saw the life jacket-less man’s head go underwater, he sprung to action. Thinking it would take too long to organize the row boat to get out to the Zodiac (the motorboat), Adam jumped into the freezing water, swam to the mooring and took the Zodiac out to rescue the man without a life preserver. As he pulled the man to the safety of the boat, he saw that the woman had been swept up to some rocks where she was clinging, still in danger. A fishing boat came up, but given the waves was not able to approach to rescue her.
Meanwhile, the Coast Guard had arrived, and was standing by observing without taking action. Thankfully, a person on the fishing boat tied a rope around himself, dove off the boat, swam to the woman and then both were towed back onto the boat. No one was harmed. This was the first time Adam has ever been involved in a rescue situation — well done!!
