PORT TOWNSEND — A rescue crew saved a 59-year-old man in Kilisut Harbor late Saturday after a boating accident.
The man, described only as a local resident, was in the water between Marrowstone Island and Indian Island for 30 to 40 minutes and had severe hypothermia when he was pulled from the water by the crew of the East Jefferson Fire-Rescue boat Guardian, said Bill Beezley, spokesman for the fire department.
The man had been attempting to swim to shore from an overturned 16-foot skiff, and he had a body temperature of 89 degrees and a laceration on his head, Beezley said.
“He was a little scrambled,” he said, and noted that long-term exposure to cold water reduces a person’s ability to think clearly.
Beezley said the rescuers did not get the man’s name before he was transferred to a waiting ambulance and taken to Jefferson Healthcare’s emergency room.
Jefferson Healthcare’s policy is that it will not release the condition of patients unless their name is known by the inquiring party.
Boats dispatched
The Guardian and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department boat, the Valor, were dispatched at 4:21 p.m. after multiple 9-1-1 reports of an overturned sailboat and a man in the water in Port Townsend Bay, Beezley said.
Initially, responders searched in the bay for the person and boat, but realized the location was actually within nearby Kilisut Harbor, he said.
Beezley said once they reached the harbor, the two rescue crews spotted the skiff and found the man attempting to backstroke to shore with no life preserver.
The Guardian’s crew pulled the man from the water while the Valor’s crew retrieved the skiff, and both headed to Mystery Bay State Park, he said.
The man was transferred to a waiting Port Ludlow Fire and Rescue ambulance, and the skiff was tied up at a dock.
Beezley said he had not been given any information about the man’s condition as of Sunday. He did not know how the boat was overturned.
The incident highlighted the importance of using flotation devices, no matter how small the vessel or how short a distance a boater intends to travel, he said.
“It was fortunate that we reached him. It could have been a lot worse,” Beezley said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
