HANSVILLE – Following a 50-minute swim after the sinking of his kayak in the chilly waters of Hood Canal, a man was safe on shore on the evening of Sept. 19, thanks to a life jacket that helped keep him afloat.

North Kitsap Fire & Rescue (NKF&R) crews were alerted just before 4 p.m. on Sept. 19 by the man’s aunt after she’d received a call from him in which he stated that his small, older kayak was sinking.

While a crew of firefighters got underway from Kingston in the district’s fire-rescue boat, another team tried to spot the man from shore. The man had been unable to accurately describe his location when speaking with his aunt who, after calling 9-1-1, went in search of her nephew.

While driving along Cliffside Road, something caught her eye and she spotted the man swimming toward shore in the vicinity of the road’s hairpin turn about a mile south of the Shorewoods neighborhood. Firefighters met the man as he made it to shore, and worked to warm him after nearly an hour in the canal’s frigid waters.

He declined further treatment.

The man told crews that he’d left his aunt’s home along Skunk Bay around 3 p.m., heading around Foulweather Bluff to Port Gamble. He was on his way back when the kayak began taking on water. Before it sank, he was able to call to his aunt.  Shortly thereafter, the kayak sank and the man attempted to swim to shore.

NKF&R’s fire-rescue boat arrived at the scene shortly after the man was spotted. A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter and another fire-rescue boat from Port Ludlow were preparing to respond but stood down once the man was safely ashore.

“It takes time to find a lone person in vast expanses of water like Hood Canal or Puget Sound,” said NKF&R Battalion Chief Ken LeMay. “Despite our resources, we know that we might not get to people before the cold water destroys their ability stay afloat – unless they’re wearing a life jacket.”

Though firefighters say that the man involved in the incident was in very good shape, they also note that the outcome might not have been as favorable without a personal flotation device. The man agreed; the first thing he said to firefighters was that he wouldn’t have made it without it.