Five visiting kayakers got a lucky rescue after some big waves flipped them into the sea off Hunter Point.
A boat with an enclosed cabin happened to be nearby on the morning of Sunday, Aug. 6, when five kayakers in a group of seven all spilled into the water off the rocky, west coast point south of Rennell Sound.
One said the wave that flipped her looked as tall as a tandem kayak, stacked tip to tip.
The kayakers got swept into the shallows just off Hunter Point, where one managed to climb up onto a rock. The other four found themselves swimming in a thick kelp bed, making it hard for the nearby boat to rescue them. All were wearing life jackets.
Eventually, the boat was able to pull all five of the capsized kayakers on board.
Another two managed to remain in their kayaks, said Dylan Carter, a maritime search-and-rescue coordinator with the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Victoria, although they were struggling in the waves and northwest wind.
The group was met later that afternoon by crews that boated up from the Sandspit Coast Guard station on the Sandspit 1 — a fast, rigid-hull inflatable — and the Cape St. James, a larger motor lifeboat.
Three of the kayakers showed signs of possible hypothermia and were taken to hospital in Queen Charlotte by the Cape St. James.
The remaining four chose to finish their journey, which took them from Masset to Queen Charlotte along the west coast of Haida Gwaii.
Home to at least three shipwrecks, the reef off Hunter Point is known to generate large waves, while the bouldered shoreline gives little opportunity to land.