CLEARLAKE >> In one stroke of fortune and another of bravery, two canoers were rescued from drowning in Monday”s choppy waters near Indian Island after nearby residents realized they”d have to take matters into their own hands to save the couple.
At a point on the lower end of Clearlake, resident Thomas Malone believes he was the only person who could have heard the cries for help from the two in the distance. Their canoe had sunk and Malone said it was luck that the wind blew their voices in his direction.
At first he ran to his house to call 911. But when he dashed back to the shoreline, it looked like the couple was already going under and he quickly turned to call on his kayaking friend, Paul Koon, for assistance.
“Paul just happens to be real healthy and diligent; he takes his kayak out every day,” Malone explained. “He was the man for the job.”
They pulled his kayak down the hill and Malone helped Koon launch. Malone used an air horn to alert the canoers help was on the way.
Koon braved the choppy surf like a veteran, Malone said. From the time Malone first saw the canoers to the moment Koon made it out to the them, 15 minutes had passed and Malone guesses they had been treading water for 45 minutes.
The pair hung onto Koon”s kayak while he battled the waves back to a nearby shore.
It wasn”t until 25 minutes after Malone had called 911 that a sheriff”s deputy arrived by boat.
The canoers “were completely distressed and probably thought they were going to die,” Malone recalls. “I thought they were going to, too. If it wasn”t for Paul, they probably would have.”
After Koon dropped the canoers off and they were picked up by the deputy, it took Koon another 30 minutes to get back to his own shore, according to Malone.
Koon declined to provide a comment although the account was confirmed. Malone, who insists Koon deserves a hero badge, will have to do the much-deserved bragging for him.
Lake County Sheriffs Office Lt. Steve Brooks confirmed a call was received at 1:38 p.m. on Monday saying a canoe had capsized and by the time his deputy arrived, the canoers had been plucked out of the water. The report did not say whether the canoers were later treated at a hospital but no accident was noted.
