A near-drowning and a stranded sailboat kept Canadian Coast Guard in Cobourg, Ont., on their toes Saturday afternoon.
The first incident happened at around noon.
A person walking along the east pier by Cobourg Beach heard a young boy calling for help from beyond the buoys marking the safe swimming area in Lake Ontario.
That person grabbed the crew’s attention aboard the Cape Mercy, a 47-foot-long Coast Guard vessel stationed in Cobourg’s harbour.
Battling high waves and strong winds, the crew managed to pull the 12-year-old Oshawa youth to safety. The boy was taken to hospital as a precaution.
Moments later, the Cape Mercy team was back in the water again, this time to rescue a stranded sailboat.
The boat ran aground on the shallow shoreline near the mouth of the harbour as it tried to leave. The crew tugged the vessel to deeper waters, and within a short time it was back on the lake and sailing for sunnier skies.
Back on land, one person was sent to hospital after a motorcycle and car collided on County Road 2 at Workman Road, just east of Cobourg at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
It’s unclear what caused the crash. The motorcyclist received non-life threatening injuries.