Posted by Chuck Tribolet on March 28, 2005 at 08:51:25:
In Reply to: Missing kayaker, diver safe; 4 others rescued posted by on March 28, 2005 at 05:46:41:
My buddy Kawika and I were down there as this
unfolded.
It was REALLY snotty in Monterey today. It came
up while we were on the first dive. Between
dives we headed in to hide in the harbor to see
if it would lay down. We towed in a couple of
experienced kayakers (not rentals). When I asked
them if they were OK, the answer was an immediate
NO! It did lay down between dives, but kicked up
again while we were on the second dive.
It took us about 10 minutes to cover the 0.4 nm
from where we did the second dive to the harbor.
As we finishing packing up in the breakwater lot
about 3:30, a couple of fellows from one of
the kayak rental places showed up in a pick up
truck and asked if we'd seen an orange kayak (we
hadn't). They then went down in to the harbor and
took off in a Boston Whaler.
They didn't (at least immediately) find their
missing kayaker, but it appears (the transmission
quality of their radio was horrid) they found a
group of four divers off Lover's who were missing
their fifth diver.
I scanned the water with binoculars for about ten
minutes and didn't see anything. The boat that
picked up the divers wasn't two miles offshore.
More like a half mile to three quarters of a mile.
It's just under two miles from the breakwater to
Lovers, so I suspect that got corrupted into "two
miles".
CG 47224 took off code 3, and the pon-pon call for
both the missing diver and the missing kayaker was
still active at 5:15. The CG was bringing a helo
down from SFO.
Chuck