Swim with Nessie led to monster rescue bill
ON a lovely sunny day – no monster in sight – taking a dip in Loch Ness seemed like a perfectly good idea.
But within seconds of leaping into the icy water from his hired boat, tourist Cam Hendry – clad only in his underwear – very quickly came to regret it.
Soon he was unable to feel his legs and his pregnant girlfriend had to dial 999, sparking a fullblown rescue that included an £8,700-an-hour helicopter.
The bus driver, from York, had hired the cabin cruiser with partner Laura Mattinson on Monday.
Mr Hendry, 26, told a local newspaper: ‘I thought, “I can’t go all the way up to Loch Ness and not have a swim”. I thought there were steps on the edge of the boat and got down to my boxers and jumped in – and immediately regretted it.
‘I realised how choppy it was and couldn’t step back on. My girlfriend is 20 weeks pregnant and couldn’t pull me back in the boat.
‘She threw me a life-ring. I was in the water for about 30 minutes when she called 999. I had started shivering and thought “this is now getting really dangerous”.’
The Ness Express, a boat operated by local firm Cruise Loch Ness, arrived and plucked Mr Hendry out of the water.
It set off for Fort Augustus with him aboard, while a member of its crew joined Miss Mattinson, 23, to guide the cruiser to the Invernessshire town. It was found that Mr Hendry’s body temperature had fallen to around 95f (35c), below the average 98.6f (37c).
They were met in Fort Augustus by emergency services personnel and he was flown by Coastguard Helicopter to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness.
Loch Ness RNLI team gave details of the rescue on social media on Monday, and warned: ‘Remember Loch Ness is always cold – the water is around 6c all year round.’
Mr Hendry responded to the post, writing: ‘A massive thank you to all the different people that rescued me. You all saved my life, I wouldn’t have lasted much longer in that water.
‘You were fantastic. I’d also like to thank the people that assisted my pregnant girlfriend, who will never forgive me... I’m so sorry that I caused such a mess.
‘The people that had to come out to me could have been relaxing on a beautiful day but they had to pull an idiot out of the water instead.’
Although the cost of the call-out is unknown, in 2011 the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said the hourly bill for a typical helicopter rescue in 2010 was £8,692 per hour.