Witnesses say that after the man fell, his two companions, a man and a woman, tried to rescue him from the water, but conditions made pulling him from the ocean difficult, and swells kept pushing him out of reach.
The man in the water eventually managed to pull himself up onto a rock but was swept back into the ocean by a large wave. He was in the water about 15 minutes as his friends tried to get him onboard.
Brian, who doesn’t want his last name used, was watching from onshore. He grabbed a life ring and raced to a spot on the breakwater where he could see the scene from above.
“I was there helping them from the breakwater,” he said in an email to The Telegram. “Two men and one girl, man in the water was drifting lifeless for 15 minutes before he was pulled up over the side of the boat.
“I laid a life ring right next to him while they were trying to rescue him from the boat. He was none responsive he was never conscious enough to grab the life ring.”
Brian said the boat was able to get in through the channel when the waters calmed a bit, and the two in the boat seemed to think the man was gone.
“I had visual on him all the time whereas they didn’t and thought he was gone.
“I demanded (the boat owner) go out and save the man in the water,” Brian wrote.
“The boat operator did and with much coaxing and direction, the girl was able to grab his lifeless body by the arm and with a Herculean effort the two occupants of the boat were able to drag his body into the boat.”
Once the channel became somewhat calm again, Brian said, he directed them back into the harbour.
"It was very windy," said another caller to The Telegram Sunday who said they were one of the people in the boat. "We were almost into the harbour when we were hit in the back by a rogue wave.”
Both the man and woman who were trying to make the rescue suffered some minor injuries when winds and rough seas tossed them around the vessel.
The waves were rough enough to continue to hamper the rescue and push the boat back out from the harbour, said the caller, but eventually the victim was taken back into the boat, and the vessel and its occupants returned to the stage in Quidi Vidi, where they were aided by a group of people onshore.
"People were very kind," said the caller. “They warmed him up.”
Ambulances and rescue personnel responded to the scene, and all three occupants were transported to hospital to be checked.
The owner of the boat was "the hero" of the rescue, said the caller who did not want to be identified, but provided a few more details. The boat owner required stitches to close a wound. The woman fared better, and did not require medical treatment.
The man who fell in the water had swallowed a lot of water, the caller said. He had also inhaled water, and suffered other injuries but none that were life threatening.
“On a note of safety,” Brian wrote in his email, “The man in the water never had a life jacket on and it was only the turbulent action of the water that kept him from sinking. Always wear a life vest.”
EARLIER STORY
Witnesses say that after the man fell, his two companions tried to rescue him from the water, but conditions made pulling him from the water difficult, and swells kept pushing him out of reach.
The man in the water eventually managed to pull himself up onto a rock, but to the dismay of watchers, was swept from the rock by a large wave. He was in the water about 10 minutes as his friends tried to get him onboard.
The waves were rough enough to hamper the rescue, but eventually he was taken back into the boat, and the vessel and its occupants returned to the wharf in Quidi Vidi.
Ambulances and rescue personnel responded to the scene, and all three occupants were transported to hospital to be checked.
The two rescuers suffered minor injuries.
The man who fell in the water had inhaled water, and suffered injuries that were not considered life threatening.
