The Civil Guard of the Maritime Detachment of Fuerteventura rescued on the afternoon of this Sunday, August 1, with the Río Órbigo Patrol Boat, a tourist who was adrift in a Kayak-type canoe between the islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura after the boat was dragged by the strong winds and the rough seas in the area.
The rescue occurred after 112 received a call around 4:20 p.m. from an employee of a company in Playa Blanca (Lanzarote), dedicated to renting kayaks, in which he stated that he had rented one of these individual canoes to a tourist and he had not returned.
In addition, he pointed out that the tourist warned the company staff that the current of the tide itself prevented him from returning to the place of departure and that he was moving further and further away from the coast of Lanzarote, according to the Civil Guard in a press release.
This immediately led to the activation of all emergency services, forming a search device with Civil Protection, firefighters and the helicopter of the Government of the Canary Islands together with the Río Órbigo Patrol Boat, coordinating the search the Operations Center of Services (COS) of the Las Palmas Command.
Thus, the tourist could be located with the canoe that had been dragged by the tide and was adrift between the islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, specifically 3.7 miles from Lanzarote (Pechiguera Lighthouse) and 2.9 miles from Fuerteventura.
In this way, at approximately 5:30 p.m., the crew of the Río Órbigo Patrol Boat of the Civil Guard rescued the man and his boat, later transferring him to the Port of Marina Rubicón, in Arrecife, where he had to be attended by health personnel as he was exhausted and presented a slight hypothermia.
The Civil Guard has pointed out that this is a rescue that was hampered by the state of the tide, which is what caused the emergency situation, since there was a rough sea with waves of 2 to 3 meters with quite strong wind.
