Oak Bay police officers doing traffic control for Saturday’s Remembrance Day ceremony rescued a man who fell off his boat into the waters near Oak Bay Marina.
Constables Brett Stewart and Eric Payne were stationed on Beach Drive just after 10 a.m. when they received a call about a man yelling for help in the water. A pedestrian walking by the marina saw the man clinging to the side of his sailboat moored in the bay.
The man was climbing from his liveaboard boat onto a dingy when he fell into the water, Stewart said. An injury prevented the man from pulling himself up, so he hung onto the boat’s ladder, shoulder-deep in the chilly water.
“Fortunately, he had the wherewithal to be able to hang onto the boarding ladder of his boat and call out,” Stewart said.
Payne kept an eye on the man from shore while Stewart flagged down a nearby boater. Stewart hopped aboard the 18-foot fishing boat and headed toward the man.
With the boater’s help, Stewart pulled the man from the water. The man was taken to the dock and treated by B.C. Ambulance paramedics.
It’s believed the man, in his late 50s, was in the water for more than 25 minutes. He has since recovered from mild hypothermia.
“We were lucky there were lots of pedestrians in the area, being a weekend, [and] they were able to hear him and call for assistance,” Stewart said.
Stewart and Payne returned to their post for the Remembrance Day service at the Oak Bay cenotaph.
