SAR plucks turr hunters from ice-bound boat
Slob ice kept Indian Bay men from returning to land
Three experienced turr hunters from Indian Bay had their wisdom tested when they found themselves stuck in slob ice with a winter storm bearing down on them.
On Sunday, Andy Cook pulled a 16-foot open boat with ATVs about a kilometre out Indian Bay to the edge of the ice with his hunting pals, brothers Jamie and Rodney Oldford. It’s the normal way to go about turr hunting in the community of Indian Bay, but despite previous successes with this method, this particular trip turned foul.
They left their bikes at the edge of the ice and boarded their boat. A couple of hours later, the wind picked up, blowing up the bay towards them. It pushed the ice in, jamming the three hunters between it and the ice already on the other side of the boat. As they made their way towards land, their boat began to founder in slob ice.
“It was too hard for the boat to break through,” says Cook.
The ice was also too weak for the three to walk across. They were in a tight spot. They started manoeuvring their boat backwards and forwards in an effort to break up the ice. They became stuck about 2:30 p.m., says Cook. After a couple of hours of using this method to inch their way in, the hunters knew they had gone as far as they could.
Daylight was fading fast and a storm was building around them.
Dieter Gibbons of the local fire department got a call from the three stranded hunters looking for the number for the search and rescue (SAR) dispatch out of Halifax. Gibbons decided to go out to the edge of the ice himself with a few others and see if they could help.
“Based on the information we had, we came up with a plan to try and attempt a rescue from the ice edge,” he says.
The plan was to use as much rope as possible and take a boat out to where the three hunters were stranded.
Gibbons and the rescue crew were in survival gear and if their boat got into trouble, they could be pulled back in with the length of rope. But the situation was a little different than Gibbons initially thought.
“When we got on scene, we determined that it was a bit too far to attempt that type of rescue,” he says.
“We could see them. By the time I got there it was dark. Every now and again you would manage to get a light off of their cellphone.”
Gibbons and the others stayed at the scene. All the while Gibbons was talking with both SAR and the local RCMP.
“I said to the guys, ‘There’s not much we can do here, but we can stay here and let the b’ys know we haven’t abandoned them,” says Gibbons.
By this time there was winds and blowing snow.
Gibbons says he and his crew were moving around to keep warm, but the three out in the boat couldn’t even do that since the ice wasn’t safe to walk on. Out on the ice, Cook and the others watched the would-be rescuers as the light faded and the snow built up. “It was close, but yet so far away,” he says. The three were chilled and Jamie Oldford was doing a little worse than the rest.
“He was lying down in the boat and dozing off to sleep, so we was trying to keep him up,” says Cook. “We was trying to keep him on the go. We was cool ourselves, but you gotta try and stand by one another.”
At this point, the three figured they were out there for the night. The weather was worsening and they couldn’t see a chopper flying in it.
“It was scary,” admits Cook. “We was talking to one another saying, ‘We got to stick together. We got to do the best we can if we’re here for the night.’”
The three were prepared. They had dry hats and gloves, some grub and four small heaters that each would provide four hours of heat. They made a shelter out of their rubber gear, lit two of the heaters and climbed in. It wasn’t a great amount of heat but it was enough to get a bit of warmth through your hands, says Cook.
At 10:39 p.m., a CH-149 Cormorant Helicopter was dispatched from Gander. Capt. Aaron Noble with the 103 SAR squadron was at the controls of the chopper. They were coming up through the valley with the wind on their tail and the hunters in front of them. The winds were blowing about 75 to 80 km/h Noble figures, and the high terrain in the area was creating a lot of turbulence.
“It was a fight. It was a fight all the way,” says Noble.
Through their night-vision goggles the hunters could make out a light. Then Cook and the Oldford brothers set off a couple of flares just for confirmation. The chopper hovered over the hunters, but the hardest part was yet to come.
“That turbulence was creating quite a challenge,” says Noble. “We were at about 100 feet when we were hoisting. And you can imagine the swing having all that cable running down and then we’ve got our SAR tech at the bottom and we’re trying to get our SAR tech into this little 16-foot boat.”
Forty minutes after arriving in the area, SAR personnel had the hunters on board and were headed for the hospital in Gander.
“It was a relief,” says Cook. “If the helicopter didn’t get us, we would have been in hard shape.”
Despite the challenges the SAR team faced, Cook said, the rescue was flawless.
“They did an excellent job. Couldn’t do no better,” he says.
The three were examined at the hospital and were given the all-clear. Cook says he’ll certainly hunt turr again, but not the same way he did it before. Next time he’ll make sure he won’t be in a position where he can be trapped in so much ice.