Captain Kyle McOuat of the M.J. Green and his crew answered a mayday call from a vessel potentially sinking on July 6, 2020.
The captain of a pleasure yacht made a mayday call at 12:55 pm for a Coast Guard request for mariners’ assistance to his sinking boat near Hutt Island, a small island located off the coast of Bowen Island in British Columbia.
Captain Kyle McOuat, Engineer Sam Garmulewicz and part-time Engineer Roman Lademann responded to the mayday call at 12:57pm on M.J. Green.
At 1:10pm, M.J. Green arrived on scene to see the yacht’s two crew members wearing life jackets. The WCMRC personnel assessed the yacht’s crew to ensure they were safe and then they turned their focus to saving the boat.
They immediately tied up heavy lines on the sinking yacht and tied it to M.J. Green to keep it afloat.
The crews went onboard with two portable water pumps and discovered roughly 24 inches of water rising in the sinking vessel’s engine room.
They pumped for about 15 minutes before the Royal Canadian Search and Rescue (RCM-SAR) response vessels arrived, and they deployed two more dewatering pumps to the yacht. Shortly after, the Canadian Coast Guard vessel Laredo Sound arrived on scene.
M.J. Green was told to stand down by the Canadian Coast Guard and the WCMRC crew gathered their equipment and waited nearby till 1:40pm for the official clearance by Victoria Coast Guard Radio. The Canadian Coast Guard towed the couple and their vessel back safely to shore.