A Maui man remained missing Wednesday night while two groups of boaters were safe on shore in three separate boating-related incidents off Maui and Oahu.
The missing man had been kayaking off Maui; a sailboat lost its mast after a grounding at Magic Island; and seven people were rescued after a pontoon boat flipped in Kaneohe Bay.
In another ocean-related accident, a 57-year-old man was pronounced dead Wednesday after a surfer brought him to shore at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki. Fire Department Capt. Terry Seelig said a surfer saw the man in the ocean break known as “Rock Piles” about 8:20 a.m.
Off Maui, the Coast Guard planned Wednesday to search overnight for Torry Durrell, 55, of Kihei, whose kayak was found Tuesday by a commercial boat, the Seascape II, about 200 yards off Kalepolepo Beach Park.
Firefighters began a search after Durrell’s neighbor reported him missing at 12:19 p.m. Wednesday and confirmed the recovered kayak was his, Maui firefighters said.
Searching by land, sea, and air, firefighters covered three miles of shoreline and ocean about a mile out to sea. They suspended their search at 6 p.m. because of nightfall and planned to return at first light today, said Lee Mainaga, fire department spokesman.
The Coast Guard joined the search shortly after noon Wednesday with an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter, the cutter Kiska and a 45-foot response boat. All were expected to search overnight, a Coast Guard spokeswoman said.
No sign had been found of Durrell, who has gray hair and blue eyes, by Wednesday evening.
On Oahu, surf grounded a 35-foot sailboat at Magic Island and snapped its mast.
Stanley Kim said he, his friend, Jessica Appel, and her dog were leaving Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor in her boat, the FSOW, when the waves overpowered the “small putt-putt motor” and continued to broadside the boat until it rested against the breakwater.
Lifeguards helped Appel and Kim off the boat shortly after 2 p.m., Seelig said.
She suffered scratches and was taken to the hospital for observation, while Kim, though also scratched, was not hospitalized, said Deborah Ward, state Department of Land and
Natural Resources spokeswoman. The dog was in good condition, she said.
Appel’s insurance company has hired a salvage company to remove the destroyed boat and no fluids were spilled, Ward said. Removal of the vessel is expected to take three to four days, and the public is advised to stay away from it for safety, Ward said.
Meanwhile, seven people were rescued after their 26-foot pontoon boat began taking on water and flipped off Kualoa Regional Park.
One of the boat’s metal pontoons started leaking about 11 a.m. when the boat was about 200 yards off the shore side of Mokolii island, Seelig said.
The men, who were diving, tried to prevent the boat from tipping, but a wave flipped the vessel, spilling their gear into the water, he said.
The men swam for Kapapa Island, which was about a mile away, but appeared closest to the men, Seelig said.
During the swim, the men became separated, and the two fastest swimmers went to a sandbar where they borrowed a cellphone to call for help about 2:45 p.m. and were picked up by a fire helicopter.
Three other men made it to Kapapa Island where a boater picked them up and transferred them to a fire rescue boat.
Waterfront Operations from Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe plucked the last two men from the water as they were struggling with the current while trying to swim to Mokolii Island, Seelig said. No one was hurt.
Seelig said the men did not have life jackets and advised mariners to have the proper equipment, such as life jackets and a signaling device.
He said the boat was partially submerged, and if the boaters had been wearing life jackets, they could have stayed with the vessel as a group to create an easier target for emergency responders to find.
