Archie Vincent, 51, of Kyuquot will be making his way to Vancouver March 2 to receive an award from the Lifesaving Society of BC.
The award comes after a nomination letter was sent to the society by Donna Vernon, a Relief Community Health Nurse for Kyuquot. Her letter outlined a boating accident that took place April 11, 2012 in which a local was missing at sea for more than 12 hours.
“On the morning of Wednesday, April 11, 2012, fisherman Kevin Sutherland left the Kyuquot harbour to fish. In the early evening he had not arrived home and his wife sent out an alert to the village and the Coast Guard was notified,” she wrote.
Kevin Sutherland, 42, had gone out that morning in his 2-ft fibreglass boat to fish halibut. He said there was a southeaster blowing that got worse as the day wore on.
“I went out to Thornton Island. The waves were getting worse but I had a couple halibut on the lines,” he recalled.
Archie Vincent had also been out fishing that day, but went in when the weather worsened. He saw Sutherland fishing nearby.
Then, just before 1 p.m., the unthinkable happened. With his stern facing the waves he began pulling in his lines; his back to the stern.
“By the time I turned around the stern was half under water,” he said. Working franticly to keep his lines from tangling and dealing with the rapid flooding, Sutherland, alone, was overwhelmed.
“I couldn’t stop the water. I could see the stern dropping as the water poured in and all I could do was jump off because it rolled over real fast,” said Sutherland. He said he couldn’t believe how fast it happened. In his 20 years of boating experience he had never seen anything like that before.
Wearing only a set of thermal underwear, rain pants and a sweater, Sutherland was dumped in the chilly ocean. “I was in the water for about half an hour,” he said, cold, scared and vomiting. “I could see my stuff floating away.”
Sutherland said he started to swim toward a nearby island and made it about 100 feet but had to turn back because the water was too cold. He climbed up on the hull of his overturned boat. There he clung on for 12 hours.
When he didn’t arrive back home by early evening, Sutherland’s wife Vivian raised the alarm and as the sun was setting, six boats left the harbour to search for the man.
Archie Vincent, being the last to see Kevin, was the first to leave. He searched for four hours, starting at the place he last saw Sutherland. In a zigzag pattern he covered the area where he thought Kevin might be found. In the darkness he would have to stop the boat and shine his light. He stopped the boat’s engine so that he could listen for Sutherland’s calls for help.
Finally, at about 1:30a .m., Vincent heard his friend’s shouts just as he was about to head back to the harbour because he was running low on fuel.
Sutherland was worried about his chances of being found. It was a grey, windy day; the hull of his boat was grey and the waves were splashing over. He was hard to see.
“I’ve never been so scared and I’ve never prayed so hard; but I could see the boats looking for me and I was so happy when Archie heard me.
“At first he didn’t know which direction to go...he would go a little ways, turn the motor off and listen for me until he spotted me,” Sutherland recalled.
“There he was on the hull; he jumped in my boat and I sat him in my chair and gave him my Stanfield and Floater jacket; he was really cold,” Vincent said. The Coast Guard wanted to fly him out but Sutherland wanted to go back home.
When asked why he didn’t want to go with the Coast Guard to get medical attention, Sutherland said, “I didn’t want to wait out there anymore; I just wanted to get my feet back on land,” he said.
Sutherland was taken back to the Kyuquot Red Cross station where he was treated for hypothermia. His family, relieved and grateful, was also there to welcome him home. Sutherland has a wife and four children: Sonya, 21; Gary, 18; Cole, 13 and Summer, 8.
Kevin was taken to the hospital in Port McNeil the next day where doctors found him well enough to go back home.
Kevin saved himself by removing his Stanfields (thermal underwear) and wringing them out whenever they got soaked. When he noticed the current was pushing him out to sea he worked the anchor line, which still had the anchor attached, and was able to snag it on a reef. He believes it that is what allowed searchers to find him in time.
But he is most thankful to the volunteers and searchers. “They’re great, and I want to say thank you to all the guys that went out searching for me” said Sutherland.
Four days later, on Sunday, April 15, the community gathered for a celebration of life feast. The community celebrated the happy ending to the story and they honoured Vincent for his part in finding Kevin.
Members of both families will travel to Vancouver March 2 to see Vincent receive his award.
