Four people are safe after an incident in Cowichan Bay on Thursday that left a five-year-old girl stranded in an out-of-control boat.
Just after 6 p.m., two adults and a young child were tossed into the ocean from the 16-foot power boat they were travelling in.
Simon Pidcock and his crew were returning from a whale-watching trip when they noticed a boat doing donuts in the water nearby. When they got closer to investigate, they saw a man holding a two-year-old child while treading water.
The crew pulled the pair safely out of the water, but the rescue wasn’t over yet.
“We heard a faint yell and I asked the gentleman if there was anyone else in the water and he said, ‘Yeah, my brother’s in the water.’ So we started looking for him and saw him,” Pidcock said. “He was just breaking the surface, just his face basically above the surface… just about to go under.”
The man was quickly rescued by Pidcock and his crew. It wasn’t long after that they found out a young girl was stuck on the speedboat that was spinning out of control.
Pidcock and the rescued family jumped in the boat to rescue the girl and a dog that was also onboard. All of the passengers were taken to hospital.
“I think they were really fortunate that someone was close by and somebody who had enough savvy to be able to make that rescue,” Captain Colin Henthorne from the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre, said.
Both the children were wearing life jackets but the adults were not. All four are now at home recovering.
—With files from Rumina Daya
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