GOULDSBORO, Maine — Two kayakers have died and a third is being treated for hypothermia at a Bangor hospital after they capsized in the ocean off the coast of the local village of Corea.
The U.S. Coast Guard received a complaint around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday from a woman who reported that her husband and two other people had gone kayaking around noon but had not returned at 4:30 p.m. as planned, Coast Guard officials indicated.
The names of the kayakers have not yet been released, according to a Coast Guard official.
The Coast Guard sent a response vessel from its station in Southwest Harbor and a MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Air Station Cape Cod to search for them, the federal agency indicated in a statement released early Thursday morning. Maine Marine Patrol and several good Samaritans assisted in the search.
At about 8 p.m., a private citizen assisting in the search located one of the kayakers clinging to the hull of an overturned kayak, but she reportedly was hypothermic and unable to speak. The kayaker was pulled from the water off the Sally Islands, a few hundred yards east of Corea Harbor.
“She was transferred from the good Samaritan boat’s to awaiting Emergency Medical Services in [the local village of] Prospect Harbor,” Coast Guard official wrote in the release. “She was then transported to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. Her condition is unknown at this time.”
About a half-hour later, searchers found the second kayaker, who was unresponsive. He was brought to paramedics in Prospect Harbor, where he later was pronounced dead.
Around 9:50 p.m., another private citizen assisting in the search found the third missing kayaker, who also was unresponsive, according to the release. He was brought to paramedics at Prospect Harbor, where he was pronounced deceased.
According to Kenneth Stuart, command duty officer at Sector North New England, all the kayakers were found within 300 to 400 yards of each other. He said ocean conditions were calm late Wednesday afternoon and evening but that a thunderstorm passed through the area around 2 or 3 p.m.
Stuart added officials do not know whether the storm may have played a role in the kayakers’ situation or not. All three kayakers were wearing personal flotation devices when they were found, he said.
“This is a very tragic outcome,” Stuart said in the prepared statement. “We deeply appreciate the efforts of those local boaters who assisted tonight, and we’ll be working to determine what happened and how to prevent such accidents from occurring in the future.”
