Body Glove captain rescues kayakers at Kealakekua Bay

KAILUA-KONA — As luck would have it, John Harvey was filling in as the cruise boat’s historian, which means he wasn’t wearing his swim trunks.

As captain of Body Glove cruises, he usually does — about 99.9 percent of the time, really — but the boat’s historian called in sick so in stepped Harvey wearing his khaki shorts that accompany the role.

It was in that pinch-hitting position when Harvey was telling around 80 passengers aboard a Thursday evening sunset cruise in Kealakekua Bay about Captain Cook when a U.S. Coast Guard call came across the radio regarding swimmers in distress in the same bay.

Within minutes, Harvey and the crew spotted them. Three ladies from China were huddled on a shoreline of jagged rocks along with a kayak they had flipped in the water now getting knocked against the rocks in the crashing surf.

“They were getting pounded by the waves,” Harvey said. “We just jumped in the water and started swimming toward them.”

Harvey did, in his khaki shorts that didn’t have his diving knife attached that his swimsuit does. He’d need that knife a bit later. But he swam around 50 feet to the shore and asked if any of them could swim well. One could, so he swam with her back to the boat while the other two waited on the rocks.

“They were pretty scared,” Harvey said of the women who had found themselves in a remote location, with nobody around as it was getting dark after they flipped the kayak and swam to the rocks and called 911 with a cellphone that still worked. “They definitely were not comfortable in the water.”

He swam back to the scene, but instead of swimming with the other two, he decided to get them in the vessel and float them back.

“I figured if I put them on the kayak I could kill two birds with one stone,” he said.

But the kayak’s line was tangled between boulders and needed to be cut. With no knife, another crew member swam one over to Harvey.

“The one day when I don’t wear swim shorts,” he said.

As far as loading the other two, the crash of the waves only allowed for a fraction of second between sets where there was enough water to float the boat and shove it free. One of the women began tidying up her personal things before getting in the kayak. Harvey said he firmly communicated despite the language barrier the urgency behind the situation and guided the woman to the kayak seat. Then, with the timing down and just enough water to get it off, Harvey shoved it free.

Back on board, the Coast Guard was notified of the quick rescue and the dinner cruise resumed. The three new passengers were treated to all the food, drink and live entertainment that the pleasure ride offers.

“We usually don’t come back with more than we leave with,” Maggie Brown, Body Glove owner, joked.

She said she was proud of Harvey and the crew of the rescue, situations they train for once a month. A passenger posted video of the rescue on YouTube. The team acted quickly and efficiently in the save that “was just about textbook,” she said.

“I’m proud of those guys,” she said. “It was a team effort.”

Harvey agreed.

“The entire crew was on it right away,” he said.