A rope rescue team from Nanaimo Fire Rescue had to retrieve a woman who was stranded by the rising tide on the weekend.
Emergency crews were called in shortly before 11 a.m. when witnesses saw a woman on the Nanaimo River Estuary, who had been caught off guard by the speed of the incoming tide, swimming from island to island as she tried to make her way back to shore near the Living Forest Campground on Maki Road.
Her path was finally blocked by a 10-metre high bank and the rising tide.
“She got to shore and she couldn’t make it up – the tide was coming up and it was a real steep bank – so we sent a rope rescue team out to retrieve her,” said Greg Norman, Nanaimo Fire Rescue assistant chief of operations.
The 22-year-old woman, who is visiting from Quebec, was not injured, but was taken to Nanaimo Regional General Hospital to be checked over.
“She wasn’t injured. She was just very cold and they were worried about hypothermia,” Norman said.