A Nanaimo boat operator had a rough morning after running a boat aground and then collapsing on some nearby rocks until he was found.
It happened on the breakwater by Nanoose Bay in front of the Snaw-naw-as First Nation.
Locals say it’s an unusual occurrence.
“This is the first time I’ve seen it happen,” said Sharon Edwards, an area resident.
Edwards said when she walked the beach at 8 p.m. last night the boat wasn’t there.
“The tide’s down quite low so it had to happen in the early morning or late last night.”
A Snaw-naw-as First Nation elected councillor says a band member saw the run aground boat at 6:30 this morning and after checking it out reported it.
“It’s a cruiser. He must have been moving pretty good,” said Tom Bob.
Police arrived shortly after being called.
“And after some patrols up and down the breakwater we found an individual who we believe to be the operator of the boat,” said Const. Deryk Roberts of Nanaimo RCMP.
After treating him first responders got the Nanaimo man onto a stretcher and carried him to shore where a BC Ambulance was waiting.
The man told them he wasn’t thrown from the boat on impact but got off on his own.
“He had told us he had walked along the rocks and then collapsed,” said Roberts.
Though his injuries are non-life-threatening police suspect he’d been there for hours and it’s also believed he didn’t know the area’s waterways.
“[I] just finished talking with the RCMP and he didn’t see it and he mentioned something about the breakwater not being marked but that’s why there’s a green buoy out there and a lighthouse on the other side of the bay. That’s where you’re supposed to go through,” said Bob.
Fortunately, the man’s wait for help though was relatively short compared to another man who drove off the highway near Sayward and was trapped in his vehicle for five days back in 2018.
READ: Man rescued near Sayward believed to have been trapped for days following crash
Kendall Hanson
