Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary Unit 20

The man was cold and hungry and he had been waving his flashlight in the dark at any vessel that came anywhere near the steep hillside on which he was standing.  Several ships slipped by quietly but unseeing far out in the passage, likely too far away to notice his small light.  Suddenly off in the distance he saw the navigation lights of some sort of vessel that seemed to be approaching.  He thought it was perhaps a good sign that it had a blue flashing strobe-light.  Then as the boat nosed smoothly through the dark waters towards him, several powerful spotlights were illuminated, playing over him and down onto his three fishing companions and their disabled vessel, beached on the shore below. 

A wave of relief washed over the man as he realized that they were going to be rescued.  This was reinforced by the voice that boomed out over the loud haler identifying the vessel as Coast Guard Auxiliary Unit 20 from Pender Island and asking if they needed assistance.

The circumstances that lead up to this rescue mission were that the 4 companions had set out on a fishing trip from near the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal earlier in the day.  They ended up crossing Georgia Straits and at some point in the late afternoon their outboard engine quit.  It seems that too many boaters take the crossing of the thirty kilometers of the Straits too casually.  I don’t know if the engine on the vessel had been causing problems before this but it seems the ultimate folly to venture out on a trip such as this without charts and a VHF radio. 

When their engine quit working they had only a cell phone to contact Victoria Coast Guard.  Without charts or local knowledge they could not tell the response center that they were near East Point on Saturna Island although with a little sleuthing the Response Center determined their approximate location and that is where we found them.  It was fortunate that it was a calm night or the incident could have had a tragic ending.

Bob Vergette