When Blair Kelley came home from British Columbia to visit family for the holidays, he had a little extra bling to show them - a bronze medal for bravery from the Royal Canadian Humane Association.

 Mr. Kelley, who grew up in Lunenburg and Queens counties, was a crew member aboard a sailboat involved in the dramatic rescue of another crew off the coast of British Columbia in April 2010.

 In an odd twist, another Bridgewater native, Rick Slauenwhite, was part of the same five-man crew.

 They plucked two men from the crashing seas in high winds and stayed near the boat after contacting the coast guard, which ultimately lifted four other crew members who were hanging onto the swamped vessel.

 Mr. Kelley is modest about his actions, but was recognized in late October, along with the rest of the crew, for risking his life to save others who were in distress.

 "As a sailor - I have my own boat - that's just what you do. Recognition is all great and fine, but I don't think I did anything different than anyone else would have done," he says.

 "We did something very courageous and it was good, but when you're in the situation that's what you do. You don't have any choice."

 The events of April 2, 2010, started as a day of fun competition. The captain and four-man crew of Radiant Heat were competing in the 42nd annual Southern Straits Yacht Race.

 The weather, however, didn't co-operate. Winds ranged from 30 to 35 knots, but forecasts suggested they'd slow to 25 knots and the wind would swing around to the west which would help the boats on their return home.

 But as the race began, Mr. Kelley says, "boats were just dropping out like flies." From 60 competitors, the numbers quickly dropped to fewer than a dozen.

 Radiant Heat was sailing 12 to 14 knots at times and the winds never dropped off. In fact, the storm changed its course and winds picked up instead, increasing to a sustained 45 knots with gusts as high as 55 knots.

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 "It was something else," Mr. Kelley recalls. "The seas were three to five metres and, when you went over the top of some of the waves, the ocean was nothing but white. The entire Georgia Strait was white with waves breaking and we were getting waves breaking directly right over the top of the boat."

 When Radiant Heat lost its mainsail about halfway across the straight, the crew decided it was time to drop out of the race. Seas were rolling at about 20 feet when they headed for Nanaimo, the nearest port.

 They hadn't motored far when someone spotted a mast above the waves. Moving closer, they discovered it was a capsized boat, only a couple of feet out of the water, with waves washing over it and six people hanging on where they could.

 The boat was the Incisor, which had been knocked over by a huge wave and had done a complete 360-degree rollover. It had righted itself only to be swamped by two more large waves and the crew was in peril.

 Radiant Heat's captain, Tony Brogan, circled around the swamped yacht, trying to stay at a safe distance. His crew made mayday calls and yelled to the Incisor crew that help was coming, encouraging them to hang on and stay with their boat.

 But two crew members either jumped or were washed overboard.

 Radiant Heat's crew spotted the first man in the water. They tried using a rescue collar, but the wind and seas worked against them. The captain managed to get closer to him on another pass and Mr. Kelley bent over the side and grabbed him.

 The man was conscious and fully aware, able to help the crew as they struggled to pull him on board. But he was a big man - Mr. Kelley estimates at least 250 pounds - and he was waterlogged.

 Inch by inch, Radiant Heat's crew pulled him over the side while still fighting the storm to keep their own yacht afloat. The struggle lasted about 15 minutes, but ultimately the man was pulled safely on board. He was in shock, but okay.

 As they headed back toward the swamped Incisor, Mr. Kelley spotted a second man in the water. It was the other boat's captain, hypothermic and nearly unconscious.

 "He must have been in the water for a long time at that point. When we got to him, he was virtually dead. ... He was just exhausted. He wasn't talking. He had no strength to pull himself on board," Mr. Kelley says.

 "I dove overboard after him. Someone held onto my feet and I grabbed a hold of him. We're right underwater. His head's underwater and I'm holding onto him."

 Again, a little bit at a time, the crew pulled the man onto Radiant Heat.

 "It took a long time to get that man on board. We had to do the 'one, two, three, pull' and "one, two, three, pull,'" Mr. Kelley recalls. "Inch by inch, we were able to get him on board."

 Shortly after that, with the hypothermic men stripped off and wrapped in blankets, additional help arrived. A BC Ferry served as a windbreak as a coast guard hovercraft lifted the four remaining crew members from the swamped Incisor.

 Still 10 to 15 miles from port, the crew of Radiant Heat continued on for several more hours. About five miles out, an RCMP boat came alongside and took the two Incisor crew members to hospital.

 "Even as we were coming into Nanaimo, it was still blowing like 30 to 35 knots. We were drenched and exhausted," Mr. Kelley says.

 The Incisor was later recovered. Last summer, the two crews raced against each other again.

 "It was not nearly as eventful, which was probably good," Mr. Kelley laughs.

 This was actually the third time the 35 year old has risked himself to help others.

 In March 2001, he went to the aid of a friend who found himself in trouble when he flipped his kayak off Green Bay in bad weather. Mr. Kelley paddled out on a surfboard to try to help the other man.

 When he found him hypothermic and unable to do much to help himself, Mr. Kelley tied his friend to the board and tried to get back to shore.

 Both men were pulled from the water by the coast guard, which happened to be in the area.

 Years before that, Mr. Kelley assisted a woman while in Mexico. The swimmer was being pulled out to sea. He spotted her from the beach, swam out and returned her safely to shore.

 "I don't really feel like I was a hero or anything. I was just on the beach. If it wasn't me, somebody else was going to do it," he says.

 "I just happened to be there."

posted on 01/11/12