THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 17, 1995 TAG: 9506170327
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
After two hours bobbing in the rough waters of the Chesapeake Bay - and watching helplessly as several potential rescuers passed by - a Newport News man was plucked from the water Friday evening when his screams for help were finally heard.
``They asked me what I was doing out there,'' Pat Kane, 33, said of the two people who heard and spotted him from their boat. ``At first, I just told them I was thumbing for a ride.'' Thankfully, they didn't have any aversion to picking up hitchhikers.
Kane, a communications analyst from the first block of Lighthouse Way, was brought ashore. He then walked along the beach to where police were hunting for him and told them he was safe.
``He's very fortunate,'' said Mike Carey, a Virginia Beach police spokesman.
Kane himself was joking about the incident Friday night, just two hours after he was rescued. But he said he realized the outcome could have been different.
Kane said he and a friend, David Taylor of Virginia Beach, had been out on a catamaran for about 1 1/2 hours when a wind gust flipped the craft about 5:15 p.m. At the time they were near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, about a quarter-mile from shore.
After righting the boat, Taylor climbed aboard. But before Kane could join him, the wind again had its way. ``The boat just kind of took off on us,'' Kane said.
Taylor, of the 4600 block of Ocean View Ave., tried in vain to steer back to where he could hear Kane yelling. ``But it's not like a motorboat,'' Kane said. ``It doesn't always go where you want it to go.''
Taylor finally decided to head for shore to get help.
``I did see him heading toward the beach, so I knew he was going to get some better equipment and maybe call for help,'' Kane said. ``I was bobbing up and down in some waves, but I wasn't panicking.''
When Taylor got ashore about 6 p.m., he called for help and the police and fire departments launched an extensive search, using a helicopter, boats and officers on the water's edge with binoculars. The Coast Guard was notified and dispatched its boats.
Meanwhile, Kane was doing his best to keep the tide from moving him too far from where he had fallen in the water - and from where he assumed people would look for him first. ``I swam some because I could tell the tide was going out,'' he said.
And he kept shouting for help, hoping someone on a passing craft would hear or see him.
``Several pleasure craft came within 100 yards of me,'' Kane said. ``But they did not see me. I was screaming, yelling and waving. But they didn't see me.''
Kane suspected the rough, choppy waters were hiding him. ``Maybe I wasn't tall enough or colorful enough,'' he said. He took his orange life vest off and waved at one vessel. But that didn't help. And putting the vest on proved difficult, so he didn't try that again.
With boats passing him and leg cramps becoming a problem, Kane said, he was beginning to get worried. He began bodysurfing to stay above water.
``I'd been pretty lighthearted about it at first. I mean, I've fallen off boats before; that happens when you sail,'' Kane said. ``But I was realizing this was getting to be a serious situation.''
Finally, about 7 p.m., a noisy pleasure boat came within 75 yards and Kane again shouted. To his surprise, a passenger heard him. The boat stopped and he was rescued.
``You know, I never really got their names or the name of their boat,'' he said. ``But I thanked them several times.''
They took him ashore near the Lesner Bridge.
KEYWORDS: RESCUE BOATERS by CNB