R
road warrior
Guest
Anyone got the story on the boat that bit the dust going across the bar last weekend.
juandesooka
Active Member
Scary story....an amazing brave rescue.
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/R...ing+waters+Nitinat+Narrows/1929381/story.html
Rescuers risk lives to save five from raging waters of Nitinat Narrows
By Katie DeRosa, Victoria Times ColonistAugust 25, 2009
Five people were rescued from the rough waters of Nitinat Narrows after their boat flipped.
Five people were rescued from the rough waters of Nitinat Narrows after their boat flipped.
Photograph by: Times Colonist, .
Bo Weeks was clutching his two daughters as the swelling waters of the Nitinat Narrows came crashing down on them. Their boat had capsized and was sinking as the two other men in their crew clutched onto what was left. No one was wearing lifejackets. The current kept Weeks and the girls paralyzed in the water.
“I couldn’t do anything. There was no way I could swim with my two daughters to the beach,” said Weeks, a Tacoma, Wash., resident.
He was on a fishing trip last weekend on the Island’s west coast with daughters Eliza, 15, and Kelsey, 13.
Kelsey described the four minutes in the water as the scariest thing she’s ever experienced. “In the next wave I would have been gone — I couldn’t hold on for too much longer.”
Then they saw Dan Haslam’s boat, racing toward them. Haslam and two friends heard a 22-foot boat had been tossed sideways by violent waves and that five people were in the water. It was just the beginning of a dramatic rescue that unfolded in Nitinat Narrows, about 70 kilometres southwest of Lake Cowichan, in the span of a few minutes Saturday afternoon. Both Weeks’ group and Haslam’s group had plans for a quiet day of fishing. The eight ended up fighting to get out of the rapids alive.
Haslam, Chris Lachman and Scott McKinlay, all 28, from Duncan, were fishing in Nitinat Lake, just outside the narrows, when they heard a radio call asking for help from anyone on the lake, which was the least-dangerous way to get to the capsized boat.
“I said to my friends, ‘That’s us — we gotta go,’ ” Haslam said Wednesday. “I seen the two guys hanging on their boat. And then I heard girls screaming, ‘Save us, save us’ and I looked to the left and I saw the father with the girls, one under each arm, just floating in the water.”
Haslam pulled the three into his 18-foot boat and headed for the two older men, who were leading the Weeks’ fishing tour. He screamed for the men to let go of the sinking boat and after hesitating, they did.
Haslam and his friends heard what they thought was cheering from fishermen watching from the shore, but the men were actually screaming for them to head back to the lake. “They were yelling, ‘You gotta get out of there — there’s rollers coming.’ ”
Haslam sped the boat out of the clutches of the approaching wave. He left so fast that one of the men from Weeks’ boat was still half in the water, being dragged while holding onto a bar at the back. “It was lucky we left when we did because I looked up and there was a big white wall of water,” Haslam said.
Those watching from the sidelines later described seeing the boat disappear and then reappear as 10-metre swells hurled it up and down. “They thought all of us were dead.”
The narrows join Nitinat Lake to the Pacific Ocean, so the force of the currents coming from both directions creates a “washing-machine” effect, Haslam explained.
Also, the boat was severely weighed down by the eight people on board. “So I screamed to the guys, ‘I need weight forward.’ ”
When they were finally out of danger, the three men headed to the lakeshore where Haslam’s group had set up camp, and gave the five shivering and soaked boaters dry clothes and food. People from the Nitinat First Nations lit a fire while Haslam drove Weeks back to his car in Port Renfrew.
Talking about the experience just days later, Weeks, a 47-year-old veterinarian, is overcome with emotion that the three risked their lives to save them.
“If it wasn’t Dan, there was nobody,” he said. “It’s because of him and his friends that I can talk to you.”
Weeks insisted on sending Haslam, who he calls “a modest, gracious young man,” some money for the motor on his boat, which broke during the rescue, and the dry clothes he provided.
“I told him I could give him my house and it would not be enough to pay him for bringing back my girls.”
kderosa@tc.canwest.com
© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist
*************************
http://fishingportrenfrew.ca
http://fishingsooke.ca
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/R...ing+waters+Nitinat+Narrows/1929381/story.html
Rescuers risk lives to save five from raging waters of Nitinat Narrows
By Katie DeRosa, Victoria Times ColonistAugust 25, 2009
Five people were rescued from the rough waters of Nitinat Narrows after their boat flipped.
Five people were rescued from the rough waters of Nitinat Narrows after their boat flipped.
Photograph by: Times Colonist, .
Bo Weeks was clutching his two daughters as the swelling waters of the Nitinat Narrows came crashing down on them. Their boat had capsized and was sinking as the two other men in their crew clutched onto what was left. No one was wearing lifejackets. The current kept Weeks and the girls paralyzed in the water.
“I couldn’t do anything. There was no way I could swim with my two daughters to the beach,” said Weeks, a Tacoma, Wash., resident.
He was on a fishing trip last weekend on the Island’s west coast with daughters Eliza, 15, and Kelsey, 13.
Kelsey described the four minutes in the water as the scariest thing she’s ever experienced. “In the next wave I would have been gone — I couldn’t hold on for too much longer.”
Then they saw Dan Haslam’s boat, racing toward them. Haslam and two friends heard a 22-foot boat had been tossed sideways by violent waves and that five people were in the water. It was just the beginning of a dramatic rescue that unfolded in Nitinat Narrows, about 70 kilometres southwest of Lake Cowichan, in the span of a few minutes Saturday afternoon. Both Weeks’ group and Haslam’s group had plans for a quiet day of fishing. The eight ended up fighting to get out of the rapids alive.
Haslam, Chris Lachman and Scott McKinlay, all 28, from Duncan, were fishing in Nitinat Lake, just outside the narrows, when they heard a radio call asking for help from anyone on the lake, which was the least-dangerous way to get to the capsized boat.
“I said to my friends, ‘That’s us — we gotta go,’ ” Haslam said Wednesday. “I seen the two guys hanging on their boat. And then I heard girls screaming, ‘Save us, save us’ and I looked to the left and I saw the father with the girls, one under each arm, just floating in the water.”
Haslam pulled the three into his 18-foot boat and headed for the two older men, who were leading the Weeks’ fishing tour. He screamed for the men to let go of the sinking boat and after hesitating, they did.
Haslam and his friends heard what they thought was cheering from fishermen watching from the shore, but the men were actually screaming for them to head back to the lake. “They were yelling, ‘You gotta get out of there — there’s rollers coming.’ ”
Haslam sped the boat out of the clutches of the approaching wave. He left so fast that one of the men from Weeks’ boat was still half in the water, being dragged while holding onto a bar at the back. “It was lucky we left when we did because I looked up and there was a big white wall of water,” Haslam said.
Those watching from the sidelines later described seeing the boat disappear and then reappear as 10-metre swells hurled it up and down. “They thought all of us were dead.”
The narrows join Nitinat Lake to the Pacific Ocean, so the force of the currents coming from both directions creates a “washing-machine” effect, Haslam explained.
Also, the boat was severely weighed down by the eight people on board. “So I screamed to the guys, ‘I need weight forward.’ ”
When they were finally out of danger, the three men headed to the lakeshore where Haslam’s group had set up camp, and gave the five shivering and soaked boaters dry clothes and food. People from the Nitinat First Nations lit a fire while Haslam drove Weeks back to his car in Port Renfrew.
Talking about the experience just days later, Weeks, a 47-year-old veterinarian, is overcome with emotion that the three risked their lives to save them.
“If it wasn’t Dan, there was nobody,” he said. “It’s because of him and his friends that I can talk to you.”
Weeks insisted on sending Haslam, who he calls “a modest, gracious young man,” some money for the motor on his boat, which broke during the rescue, and the dry clothes he provided.
“I told him I could give him my house and it would not be enough to pay him for bringing back my girls.”
kderosa@tc.canwest.com
© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist
*************************
http://fishingportrenfrew.ca
http://fishingsooke.ca
ReelAffair
Active Member
That could have been a horrible story had it gone wrong....Good job to the guys that rescued them
Rum Buddies
Well-Known Member
what an a$$hole - taking his young daughters into that water with obviously no respect for what he was doing. If some idiot wants to risk his own life fine but his young daughters, what a *****.
http://www.fishingvancouverisland.org - a new Fishing forum
http://www.fishingvancouverisland.org - a new Fishing forum
Charlie
Well-Known Member
I agree with Pippen! Except, I don't think there was any "potentially" about it! They put their lives on the line! Very good outcome for something that could have been very tragic!
Poppa, I first thought the same thing, but then I homed in on "two older men, who were leading the Weeks' fishing tour"! I have to wonder what "they", "the experienced ones" were thinking? A 22-foot boat, 10-metre swells (that had to be breaking over the bar?). I am thinking that might have not been the best judgment being made?
There is a difference between "ignorance" and "stupidity"! Leaving the girls out of the equation, it looks 1 was ignorant to the situation and 2 might have been more on the stupid side?
Sometimes, it is just better to say, "I am not going to do that"! Turn around and go home, which I have done many times!
Poppa, I first thought the same thing, but then I homed in on "two older men, who were leading the Weeks' fishing tour"! I have to wonder what "they", "the experienced ones" were thinking? A 22-foot boat, 10-metre swells (that had to be breaking over the bar?). I am thinking that might have not been the best judgment being made?
There is a difference between "ignorance" and "stupidity"! Leaving the girls out of the equation, it looks 1 was ignorant to the situation and 2 might have been more on the stupid side?
Sometimes, it is just better to say, "I am not going to do that"! Turn around and go home, which I have done many times!
10 meter swell my arse. I was fishing the bank that day, they were around 4 feet. Reports on the guide channel that day of guys fishing the bar were more like 6-8 feet.
Last Chance Fishing Adventures
www.lastchancefishingadventures.com
www.swiftsurebank.com
Last Chance Fishing Adventures
www.lastchancefishingadventures.com
www.swiftsurebank.com
juandesooka
Active Member
re: 10 metres. I suspect either a typo or lost in translation....10 metres = 10 feet.
Or if not, then gross exaggeration or "holy crap that's a huge wave, looked like a 30 foot wall of water!"
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Or if not, then gross exaggeration or "holy crap that's a huge wave, looked like a 30 foot wall of water!"
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Deewar25
Well-Known Member
Well, in their defense (only to a small degree), they were from the states, so its possible were unfamiliar with the area and the risk. If they boated from the river, that's a long haul out to get cold feet with the situation and turn around. Figured, lets give er a go, the boats big enough.
Just a possible theory anyway!
I had the same mindset the first time I was out there (although I was like 19) - top it off with the fact that I went through in a 12' lund and as we went through had a big wave chase us out! I can laugh now how psycho I was back then as just a dumb kid...but yeah, no way would I make that move if my kids were in the boat and especially without lifejackets.
Just a possible theory anyway!
I had the same mindset the first time I was out there (although I was like 19) - top it off with the fact that I went through in a 12' lund and as we went through had a big wave chase us out! I can laugh now how psycho I was back then as just a dumb kid...but yeah, no way would I make that move if my kids were in the boat and especially without lifejackets.
Last Chance: you're dead on. 10 metres swell is way off. Seems like a huge exaggeration. Media are guilty of that sometimes.
Years ago the factory and offices of the company my dad worked for in Weston, Ontario went up in flames ... major fire ... all the buildings lost ... Two separate newspapers had the flames over 200 feet in the air and the TV reporter suggested 500 feet high deadly toxic wall of flames - truth was no flames were actually above 50 foot high and no one was evacuated but it made a great story!
Most folks who have catastrophic boating accidents are totally unaware of the true risk that they face when something goes terribly wrong. From fun fishing trip to near death experience in the blink of an eye. Do you think those five US visitors would have all worn PFDs if they knew there was a chance to flip the boat while going in the cut - you betcha arse they would! ("arse" seems to be an acceptable word on this forum - goody). The two older chaps (trip leaders) would have most likely never attempted going through the gap in the first place if they clearly understood the risk and how bad it could be get.
Seasoned knowledgeable boaters know or recognize risk and avoid it. Or simply take precautionary measures to minimize it. Mother nature (especially the ocean) can often be incredibly powerful and way dangerous. It's not real wise to mess with her. On another SFBC thread the folks were discussing a tragic tale of a life lost in Dent Narrows the other day when the boat was going through whirlpools/eddies in a strong tidal flow. Posters mused about what they should do or how to handle the boat if they get caught in the down draft of a monster eddy. Why even time it to go through that kind of water danger when the conditions are like that? Check the tide tables and fish an hour or so more or an hour or so less and go through when it isn't dangerous.
One of the crazy things I see people do fairly regularly out on the ocean is stand on the aft swim grid with no lifejacket, two hands on their manhood and p!$$ing in the water expelling excess Luckys just to save a few drips from getting on the gunwhales. Hey it looks way cool, it's real macho but clearly not too bright when you have a real risk of falling overboard right by the kicker's spinning prop blades.
Tragically, each year there are many lives lost on the water. Most of those losses avoidable and I think the stats are about 80% not in a life jacket. Thank the lord for the Weeks family that it was not their time to go and they lived to tell this rescue story. I salute the heroism and selflessness of all three rescuers Dan Haslam, Chris Lachman and Scott McKinlay. Great work guys! I just pray if ever I get in distress on the briny there is someone nearby like them!
Gov
God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling - Izaak Walton
Years ago the factory and offices of the company my dad worked for in Weston, Ontario went up in flames ... major fire ... all the buildings lost ... Two separate newspapers had the flames over 200 feet in the air and the TV reporter suggested 500 feet high deadly toxic wall of flames - truth was no flames were actually above 50 foot high and no one was evacuated but it made a great story!
Most folks who have catastrophic boating accidents are totally unaware of the true risk that they face when something goes terribly wrong. From fun fishing trip to near death experience in the blink of an eye. Do you think those five US visitors would have all worn PFDs if they knew there was a chance to flip the boat while going in the cut - you betcha arse they would! ("arse" seems to be an acceptable word on this forum - goody). The two older chaps (trip leaders) would have most likely never attempted going through the gap in the first place if they clearly understood the risk and how bad it could be get.
Seasoned knowledgeable boaters know or recognize risk and avoid it. Or simply take precautionary measures to minimize it. Mother nature (especially the ocean) can often be incredibly powerful and way dangerous. It's not real wise to mess with her. On another SFBC thread the folks were discussing a tragic tale of a life lost in Dent Narrows the other day when the boat was going through whirlpools/eddies in a strong tidal flow. Posters mused about what they should do or how to handle the boat if they get caught in the down draft of a monster eddy. Why even time it to go through that kind of water danger when the conditions are like that? Check the tide tables and fish an hour or so more or an hour or so less and go through when it isn't dangerous.
One of the crazy things I see people do fairly regularly out on the ocean is stand on the aft swim grid with no lifejacket, two hands on their manhood and p!$$ing in the water expelling excess Luckys just to save a few drips from getting on the gunwhales. Hey it looks way cool, it's real macho but clearly not too bright when you have a real risk of falling overboard right by the kicker's spinning prop blades.
Tragically, each year there are many lives lost on the water. Most of those losses avoidable and I think the stats are about 80% not in a life jacket. Thank the lord for the Weeks family that it was not their time to go and they lived to tell this rescue story. I salute the heroism and selflessness of all three rescuers Dan Haslam, Chris Lachman and Scott McKinlay. Great work guys! I just pray if ever I get in distress on the briny there is someone nearby like them!
Gov
God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling - Izaak Walton
Charlie
Well-Known Member
I once (in the end of March) drove 400+ miles to Gold River, launched, went to Tahsis, then went Esparanza fuel dock, got there in the middle of a snow blizzard, and said to myself, what the h*ll am I doing? Turned around went back to Gold River, pulled my boat out of the water and drove anouther 400+ miles. I NEVER put a pole in the water! Like I said, somethimes, it is just better to turn around and go home!
S
scottyboy
Guest
had front row seats. we called and dan answered. all i can say is there heros . the bar was solid side to side brakers all day biggest i`ve seen in along time. it was amazing like god stoped the rollers for about 4 min just enough time for hazy and boys 2 pick up 2 girls ,1 adult in boat 1 holding onto the swim grid as they pined the motor to get out as another roller was just cresting. the owner of the boat wouldn`t get in and swam 2 shore. i can still see this movie in my mind and will never forget it. don`t f%(K around at the gap!
tight lines
tight lines
W
WillyD
Guest
Many a people have got in trouble going through the nitnat bar.
Every media story that I've had first hand knowledge of is always screwed up in some way in its reporting. The incorrect wave conditions are a result of some idiot at the paper rushing to get a story to print and not caring enough about details. Don't you guys remember when Coho first closed and the front page read "Sport Fishing Closed" Don't believe to much of what you read, its not first hand.
S
scottyboy
Guest
well it was a 11/2 foot tide! regardless this story is about guys that risked there lives 2 save others in need. if you weren`t there you have no idea of the water or what happened.
tight lines
tight lines
boating through the Gap or narrows is no joke! I have seen many real horror stories on TV shows mostly talking about Nitinat Narrows for a long time. I have seen a video clip of a tugboat that got caught in a rip current at the narrows in Sunshine Coast and flipped over!
N
NorthStar
Guest
I was out there that day and agree with Last Chance, Maybe 10 feet, not 10 meters. The swell was running about 6 feet but I am sure it stacks at the mouth (never been thru there). In any case it would take a pretty big one to flip a 22 footer unless the skipper did something stupid like quartering a following sea with too much bow down on the tabs or something?
