Maritime Rescue rescued on Friday night two people in a kayak off the coast of Tarragona, after they could not reach land on a crossing bound for the Club Nàutic. Both were treated for hypothermia and evacuated to Joan XXIII Hospital.
The emergency was activated shortly after 8:30 PM, when a man who was in a kayak arrived by his own means at the Tarragona Nautical Club and warned that he was traveling with two other people who had stayed behind and could not reach the coast. The warning indicated that it was already night, they were tired, presented hypothermia, and there was rough sea.
Rescue a mile from the port
After receiving the alert, Maritime Rescue mobilized the vessel Salvamar Fomalhaut and the helicopter based in Reus. At 9:00 PM, the Salvamar located and rescued the two people and also the kayaks at Repsol's monobuoy, approximately one mile from the port of Tarragona.
The two affected, a man and a woman, were on top of their respective kayaks at the moment of the rescue. Before being helped, the canoes had turned over on them.
Healthcare on the jetty
The rescue vessel set course for the pier, where two ambulances from the SEM were already waiting. The medical personnel went on board to stabilize the two patients before the road transfer.
Around 9:30 PM, both were evacuated by ambulance to Joan XXIII Hospital. The rescued man, 74 years old, suffered from severe hypothermia, of greater intensity than that of the woman, about 40 years old.
They had left early in the afternoon
The three people had left at 18:00 hours by kayak bound for the Tarragona Nautical Club. The crossing became complicated for two of them, who finally were left adrift without being able to complete the arrival at the coast.
The intervention allowed the two occupants to be removed from the water alive and transferred to receive hospital care, in an operation carried out off the coast of Tarragona in a section already close to the port entrance.