SEQUIM — A pair of kayakers lost in the fog were plucked from the Strait of Juan de Fuca by a Coast Guard rescue crew earlier this week.
A crew of five in a 45-foot response boat based at Air Station/Sector Field Office Port Angeles used a combination of cellphone signals and a fog horn to locate the kayakers Tuesday in the Strait west of Dungeness Spit.
They were found drifting 500 yards from the main shipping channels and were lost in the fog, said Coast Guard Chief Philip Ketcheson, officer in charge of the boat.
“They were soaked and exhausted, and very glad to see us,” Ketcheson said.
The names of the kayakers, described as a father and his 13-year old daughter from Portland, Ore., were not available Wednesday, the Coast Guard said.
On vacation
The pair, who were in a two-seat kayak, had set out with another kayaker from a beach near Sequim, where they had rented a vacation home, Ketcheson said.
Once they were in the fog, they became disoriented, and a combination of wind and tides was pulling them into the Strait, he said.
Ketcheson said he was told that the other kayaker, who initially stayed with the pair, eventually found his way to shore.
Fog was heavier and more widespread than usual, Ketcheson said, adding that the National Weather Service had issued a small-craft warning earlier in the day.
The Coast Guard crew was taking part in a routine security patrol in Port Townsend when they received a call at about 11:15 a.m. that kayakers were lost in the fog near Dungeness Spit, Ketcheson said.
The crew was able to get the GPS location of the kayak, but they were initially unable to find it in the thick fog, he said.
“You couldn’t see anything,” Ketcheson said.
The kayakers, who had a waterproof cellphone, said they could hear sounds, but the crew determined the source was most likely a ship in the Strait, not the Coast Guard rescue vessel.
Used fog horn, cellphone
Ketcheson said that using the rescue boat’s fog horn and talking to the kayakers on the cellphone, the crew found the kayakers, who had been pulled by tides and pushed by 2.1-knot winds, and had come very close to the shipping lanes.
The kayakers and their kayak were taken on board and brought to John Wayne Marina in Sequim.
“I commend them for having a waterproof communications device. It probably saved him and his daughter,” Ketcheson said.
He said they were also wearing life jackets.
Boaters should be aware of weather conditions before venturing out into the Strait, he added.
“July and August are extremely foggy, and the temperature can be in the mid- or low 50s on the Strait, even when it’s in the 70s on land,” he said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
