Authorities received a call to 911 that reported a woman in the water near a boat between Newcastle and Protection Islands around 8:40 p.m., Nanaimo RCMP Const spokesman said. Gary O’Brien. The original report said people heard voices and screams about a man and a woman for 45 minutes. The RCMP used a port authority boat to reach the woman, who was found stranded on a rope moored in the water and was hypothermic and severely drunk, the RCMP said. “Her head was just above the water,” O’Brien told CHEK News. The 58-year-old woman was rushed to hospital and remained there on Tuesday and has since stabilized and is expected to survive. Early correspondents began an extensive search for the man, assuming he was in the water, using two boats and a diving team. Police also searched his workplace and pressed his cell phone without luck, O’Brien said. Police said search and rescue teams are also conducting extensive searches in the coast and surrounding area. The search was of particular interest to those on nearby Protection Island where the initial call was made “We know someone on the island made a Mayday call because they heard someone screaming in the water,” said Debra Weikum, a Protection Islander. An armed helicopter and a Coast Guard aircraft took part in the search last night. The noise kept many Protection Islanders and some in Nanaimo awake. “Mostly as soon as I heard the helicopter. “I seem to remember hearing it around 10:30 and I know I heard it at least until 12:30 so I think I fell asleep, so I don’t know if it overcame it or not,” Weikum said. It is believed that the man and the woman lived on the sailboat on which he was found. Police say there is nothing criminal about the incident. The man, who is believed to have drowned, was last seen wearing a blue and black shirt, blue jeans and either running shoes or flip flops. Anyone with information on the incident is kindly requested to call Nanaimo Police at 250-754-2345 and provide the file number 2022-12274. Last month another incident claimed the life of a Nanaimo man when he was found in a capsized kayak.
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