A 21-year-old man was pulled out to sea in the area of the Cobblers Cove Hotel in St Peter on Sunday and is feared drowned.
At the same time, quick action by two water sports operators at the hotel is believed to have averted other drownings.
Shortly after 10 a.m., Roger Springer was alerted by a guest of the hotel to a situation unfolding a few metres away at the Queen’s Street Beach.
“I got a distress call from a guest to a situation developing on the north end of our property that someone was in difficulty,” he told Barbados TODAY. “So, I took up the Kayak and I ran down there and tried to assess the situation to see what was going on.”
Springer said when he arrived at the beach, he saw five people in difficulty in the water, including two guests from the nearby Schooner Bay Apartment.
“I went and I assisted them and brought them back to shore,” Springer said.
Springer was assisted by Jeremy Payne who had seen him run to the water.
“I was over on the jetty sitting and I saw Roger run up the beach. He took the Kayak out and I said, ‘You know something? Roger can’t handle that himself because the sea current out there is very strong.’ I ran to the water sports shop, took up my surfboard and ran up the beach, and paddled out to assist Roger to get those people out the water back to shore,” Payne said.
Two other people, a man and woman, were also successful in making it to shore.
“The kid that is missing now; there wasn’t anything that we could have done to save him,” Springer explained.
“The sea currents were so strong. We couldn’t get him to bring him in along with the other two guests that we were trying to bring to shore. Those currents were running about 15 knots (approximately 28 km/h),” he added.
PHOTO CAPTION: Water sports operators with the Cobblers Cove Hotel Jeremy Payne (left) and Roger Springer (right) tried to rescue the missing man who was pulled into the sea at Queen’s Street Beach, but they were unsuccessful.
(RG)
