Less than two hours after the U.S. Coast Guard called off the search for a missing kayaker Thursday, officials learned he had been found safe and sound.
Adrian Cerezo, who had been the subject of sea and air searches by the Coast Guard, Maine Marine Patrol and Canadian Air Force crews, told the Coast Guard that he was able to swim to the island with his kayak, get back in it and paddle back to Petit Manan after he made three distress calls.
Coast Guard Sector Northern New England received the somewhat garbled mayday calls, the first of which came in at about 10:15 a.m.
Over the next 19 hours, the U.S. and Canadian coast guards, Maine Marine Patrol and other agencies combed a search area that covered 456 square miles without any result. They called off the search early Thursday “after exhausting all search possibilities,” according to a news release
But a Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife officer heard an audio clip of one of the mayday calls, which had been distributed to media outlets, and recognized the kayaker’s voice.
The officer contacted his office and got a phone number for Cerezo.
Cerezo was at Petit Manan when authorities called to confirm that he was the kayaker for whom crews had been searching.
He later told the Coast Guard that a wave had knocked him out of his kayak. He said his radio was water resistant but was not in a waterproof case and that he wasn’t sure if anyone had heard him before the radio stopped working.
“It’s incredibly fortunate we located him safe on land,” Ken Stewart, a command duty officer at Sector Northern New England, said. Responders treat every search as if someone is in distress and if safe, they are encouraged to notify the authorities, he said.
Stewart said Cerezo was wearing a winter wetsuit and a life jacket when he was thrown from his kayak into the cold ocean water.
“He absolutely did the right thing by researching the water temperature, recognizing the need to dress for the 49-degree water, and wear a lifejacket, all of which contributed to keeping him safe once things went wrong,” Stewart said.
During the extensive search efforts, Coast Guard Station Jonesport launched a 47-foot motor lifeboat and the 87-foot “Amber Jack” patrol boat with crews, and Station Southwest Harbor launched a 29-foot response boat and crew to search the area.
A MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter aircrew launched from Air Station Cape Cod, and the Canadian aircraft was assisted by three Maine Marine Patrol boats and aircraft out searching the water.
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