Canadian fishermen help lift a man wearing a green hat and blue plaid shirt onto a Canadian Coast Guard lifeboat that pulled alongside them. As the man calms down, he turns and says, “Thanks a lot guys,” then waves as the Coast Guard boat pulls away.
“This is for the books,” says one of the men on the fishing boat. “That was crazy!”
A brief exchange, as seen in a video posted on social networks, caught Thursday’s rescue of what authorities said was one of two men who set sail Oct. 12 from Westport in Grays Harbor County, Washington, both reported missing on Sunday.
It’s unclear whether the people were lost the entire time or whether there was a planned delay in their trip, said Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier, a spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Northwest.
The men, who traveled on a 43-metre fishing boat called the Evening, were due to return on October 15. One of the men’s daughters notified the US Coast Guard on October 22 that her father never returned home.
By October 25, the US Coast Guard called off the search, but just over 12 hours later, a fishing boat spotted a life raft. Fishermen who saw the raft called the Canadian Coast Guard, which came to retrieve the man.
Večer and the other man on it have not yet been located. The incident remains under investigation, the US Coast Guard said.
The rescued man was taken to shore and is reported to be in stable condition, officials said.
The men, who have not been publicly identified, are US citizens, according to the US Coast Guard. Where they were from in the United States was not immediately available.
It’s unclear what supplies the rescued person had on hand, but many emergency boats have emergency meals, water supplies and forms of communication, such as a torch, Petty Officer Strohmaier said.
The men were fishing for albacore tuna to sell, according to an employee of the company listed on the vessel’s permit.