THUNDER BAY — A city man who spent three hours in Lake Superior after his kayak capsized says he knew he had to keep calm to have a chance of surviving.
John Fingas, 36, was rescued Monday night from choppy water in Black Bay, but not before developing hypothermia.
In an interview Wednesday with TBnewswatch, he said he realized when his ordeal began that his life was in danger.
"The waves were so strong I just knew I was in trouble," he said. "I had to keep sort of thinking about what I was doing and that I had a limited amount of time."
The ordeal happened near the conclusion of a solo 11-day expedition from Red Rock to the Black Sturgeon River.
"It was getting near the end of the day, and I figured I would push on with some favourable wind conditions from Granite Island to the outflow of the Wolf River. I didn't realize how big the waves had gotten. It had been windy all day but it picked up after I took off from the island got into an exposed area pretty far from land. The waves were pretty huge, I would guess a couple of metres high, and those are bigger waters than I'd ever been on before."
When the craft got swamped, the water was so rough that his repeated attempts to get back into the 17-foot sea kayak all failed.
"I just kept getting rolled back out again," he said.
What very likely saved Fingas were two things — his lifejacket and his waterproof hiking GPS and satellite communicator.
Without those, he said, "there is a good chance I would be dead now."
He activated an SOS that was relayed to the manufacturer's dispatch centre, which then notified the OPP and the Canadian Coast Guard.
"I always have that device with me whenever I'm out because I do go out by myself and I go to some pretty remote places. It's sort of a last resort, of course, but it was a big comfort to me to know they were coming to get me, because I'm not sure I would have survived without it."
Fingas said it took officers in an OPP boat a while to locate him in the big waves, since he kept bobbing up and down as he clung to the kayak.
"I was able to wave my paddle up in the air, and they were following the GPS points that the emergency device puts off, so they were able to find me."
At Hurkett, he was put in an ambulance and taken to Nipigon hospital where he was put on an intravenous drip overnight to bring his temperature back up to normal.
Fingas is an experienced canoeist but this is his first season of kayaking.
"I think it's clear my skill levels weren't quite at the level they should have been to be out on such big waters. I definitely am planning to take some courses," he said, pointing out that one of the things he needs to practise is righting a capsized kayak.
He advises anyone kayaking on Lake Superior to wear a dry suit, be prepared with equipment such as an emergency communicator, and fully understand the conditions they are likely to encounter.
