Search and rescue volunteers, and other first responders consistently face difficult and dangerous situations but still gear up for unknown challenges to bring others to safety when duty calls. The mission of the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue is deceptively simple — saving lives on water.
“Our objective is to be there to help people who really need it when they are in distress,” said coxswain Mark Winfield. “My favorite part of what I do is the satisfaction of putting in thousands of hours of training over the years into practice and then doing it well as a crew and working together. It works like clockwork because you put all that time into the training, and it is very gratifying to see it manifest as a successful rescue mission.”
Various Canadian volunteer marine search and rescue groups created the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary in 1978 — in B.C. the regional not-for-profit association was known as the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary – Pacific (CCGA-P) which was established as a registered charitable organization and permitted to issue tax receipts to individual and corporate donors. In 2012, the name was changed to The Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue to better reflect their distinct identity. RCM-SAR is completely volunteer based with more than 30 stations and 1,000 crew members all up and down the coast in areas where even the Coast Guard doesn’t have a SAR base.
“We found that whenever we were involved in a rescue it was often reported that it was the Coast Guard, when it was actually us,” said Winfield. “Removing the confusion of being called the Coast Guard was the main reason for our re-branding. We changed our name to RCM-SAR to be identified as a separate organization — but we still work closely with the Coast Guard on rescues. I’d say about half of the rescues we do alone, and then the other half involve the Coast Guard or other federal and provincial agencies.”
RCM-SAR station 34 was previously located on the docks of Brentwood College in Mill Bay where they had been stationed since 1988. The college gave them an office and space on their docks to operate, but they felt they were hidden away from the community which only added to the challenge of recruitment, so they made the move to Fisherman’s Wharf in Cowichan Bay just over two years ago and now have 22 members.
“It’s been a really positive move,” said Winfield. “Moving down to Cowichan Bay and buying the boat house which we converted ourselves has really made us a part of the local community and they are much more aware now of who we are and what we do. It’s really good to be a part of this community. Recruitment has been much better since we moved to Cowichan Bay. It’s a great community here, and the station is a great mix of people who come from different backgrounds — everyone comes together and trains together and it creates a really great sense of camaraderie.”
READ MORE: Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue Station #34 moves to Cowichan Bay
The requirement for all crew is to be 15 minutes away when needed so their new location has opened half of Duncan, Cowichan Bay, Cobble Hill and the near side of Shawnigan Lake and Mill Bay to draw on for recruitment. RCM-SAR 34 held a recruitment open house last month on March 4 and plan to do their next one during the Spot Prawn Festival that will take place on Cowichan Bay’s Fisherman’s Wharf in May.
“We are always looking for women and men who are interested in joining. They don’t have to have previous experience, they just have to be keen and have a good attitude, and want to learn and be a part of a group that helps people in distress,” said Winfield. “A lot of people who come to us are experienced boaters but after they have been with us a year or two, they often say I didn’t know how little I knew until I did my training here, and it’s nice to hear that. So, they are picking up a lot of skills that they also use in their personal boating lives as well, and then also get the satisfaction of the training, the camaraderie, and helping people in distress at the end of the day.”
There are several situations where RCM-SAR 34 respond including supporting paddle-boarders and windsurfers in jeopardy and other human powered crafts such as canoes and kayaks. They also see a lot of the sad social and housing problems that have manifested in the valley and surrounding areas, and have had to rescue people living on old boats because they can’t afford anywhere else to live.
“The social side of things is quite upsetting at times. A lot of the people are one step away from homelessness and are living on boats they can’t afford to maintain. Quite often they are out on anchor or on a mooring buoy in areas like Cowichan or Mill Bay,” said Winfield. “Their boat may start sinking due to heavy rains and we are then called out to pull them off the boat as it sinks and they are just left with a couple of bags when we drop them off at the dock. It’s a case of what do they do then. We also see a lot of drug overdoses now, and had a sad one over a month ago where we were called for support by RCMP and BC Ambulance for a suspected overdose on a boat, and when we arrived the man had sadly passed away. We are always trying to raise awareness on that side of what we do.”
Winfield, who is originally from Britain, spent several years sailing around the shores of the UK, and the Mediterranean before calling the Cowichan Valley home nearly 20 years ago. With several years of experience on the water it didn’t take too much convincing from another coxswain to get Winfield to come on board. He has now been a volunteer with RCM-SAR 34 for 13 years. Winfield says that he goes on calls about a third of the time and that 80 to 85 per cent of the time that volunteers spend on the water is for training.
“We train constantly all year round in all weather conditions so we can react and perform whenever we need to in the worst conditions,” said Winfield. “When you put all that time into training, it is gratifying to see it come to the fore, and to be able to help people who are really in trouble. Over the last 12 months we saved six lives that probably would have been lost otherwise. Knowing you’ve made a difference to people whose lives are at risk and have saved that life is very meaningful.”
When not on the water training or out on a rescue mission, RCM-SAR does boat safety checks a couple of times a year and also sponsors the Kids Don’t Float program where they ensure life jackets are available at local marinas for kids of all ages. They are available for the public free of charge for the entire boating season and can be found at Blue Nose Marina as well as other local marinas including Cowichan Bay, Mill Bay, and Brentwood Bay.
“We want to make sure there aren’t little children out on the water without a personal floating device,” said Winfield. “We have all sizes ranging from little ones to 12 year olds, and then kids can wear adult ones after that. People can just borrow them, go out on the water, and then put them back.”
RCM-SAR 34 supports several community events each year including the rowing regatta in Brentwood Bay, and the First Nations canoe races that are both held in the summer where Winfield says they stand by in a safety boat in case of a capsize. They also lead the Christmas Sail Past, and have a presence during the Cowichan Bay Wooden Boat Festival.
Safety first is the top priority for RCM-SAR Station 34 and is at the forefront for all of their activities ranging from their Safety Management System to their thorough internal regulatory body and safety and training board. They are distinguished by the impeccable quality of their operations and training, equipment and their learning culture. Winfield says that their first priority is saving lives on the water, while the secondary objective is boating education. Volunteers offer boat safety checks at various local marinas that are typically advertised in advance where RCM-SAR crew members offer complimentary checks on people’s boats to ensure they are safe and meet all other regulations, and requirements.
RCM-SAR 34 also supports the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness which is the provincial emergency program that was formerly known as Emergency Management BC. Anyone who is a specified group can task RCM-SAR 34 through the provincial emergency desk which operates 24/7. Specified groups include the RCMP, BC Ambulance, municipal or wild fire, as well as ground SAR and even Cowichan Tribes. Any of those groups can call in to say they need RCM-SAR’s support, and they get paged though the same system, and once they have all the details will respond accordingly. For example if there is a fire that is only accessible by boat RCM-SAR will take the fire crew and their pumps to the shores where they can fight the fire, RCM-SAR stands by for evacuation and emergency transport and then brings the fire crew back when needed. Their response craft is designed to get on scene as fast as possible and has the capacity to do 40 knots or 75 km per hour.
“Our boat is designed to get right up on the rocks and get people off of the shore from the front of the boat. We can get our First Aid crew off the boat to help someone who may have a broken leg and can’t be accessed by road — we can then splint them up and put them in our stretcher and basket and bring them back to meet an ambulance at the dock,” said Winfield.