LIHU‘E — What started out as just another afternoon on the job for Kawika Kilar, a captain for Capt. Andy’s Sailing Adventures, turned out to be an unexpected day of life-saving adventures. It was almost 3 p.m. on Wednesday when
LIHU‘E — What started out as just another afternoon on the job for Kawika Kilar, a captain for Capt. Andy’s Sailing Adventures, turned out to be an unexpected day of life-saving adventures.
It was almost 3 p.m. on Wednesday when Kilar, nicknamed ‘Eagle Eye’ by his co-workers, was about to leave the Na Pali coastline to take his tour group back to Port Allen when he caught sight of two men waving their paddles in distress from a 14-foot Boston Whaler on the horizon.
He immediately made a beeline for them, with eight passengers in tow and his co-worker, Danny Hale.
“I knew they were in trouble as soon as I saw them,” Kilar said in an interview Saturday.
The two men had lost the motor on their boat at about 2 a.m., right before a rain storm pummeled the North Shore.
“They were really happy to see me,” Kilar said. “I could see the sigh of relief as they were standing on their little boat waving frantically. The looks on their faces were so thankful, you can’t even put it into words how joyful they were.”
The two men rescued, reportedly named Kapena Ledward and Matthew Zmuda, both assumed to be in their late 20s, had been paddling for some 10 hours before they saw Kilar’s catamaran. The pair could not be reached for comment at press time.
Kilar said the two men had left Nu‘alolo Kai — an ancient Hawaiian fishing village along Na Pali Coast, only accessible by boat — at approximately 1 a.m., attempting to beat the rough weather, but ran into trouble over the course of the next hour.
By dawn, the men had drifted so far from the shore they could see both Polihale and Hanalei in the distance.
“If I hadn’t found them, they might not have been rescued to this day,” Kilar said.
As fate would also have it, 13 passengers were expected for Kilar’s tour on Wednesday, however, only 8 happened to be present that day, providing enough lunch for the tired and famished men who had been paddling for many hours without food or water.
“Everything happens for a reason,” Kilar said.
While the men were taken care of and given jackets to warm their bodies, Hale swam their boat to shore at Miloli‘i.
The two men had apparently left Hanalei River on their Boston Whaler early Tuesday and were scheduled to return by 3 p.m. Wednesday.
The father of one of the men contacted the Coast Guard Wednesday afternoon after they had not returned, but his son and friend had already been safely rescued.
Since Coast Guard officials were not yet aware of this, they contacted the Hanalei fire station after they received the call to inform them of the situation and later requested their assistance with conducting a shoreline search for the missing men via helicopter.
As the Hanalei firefighters were preparing to leave the station, the Coast Guard informed them that they heard the men had already been found about one mile off the coast of Miloli‘i.
Kilar said the father was wise to call as quickly as he did when they had not returned, as he knows “what the North Shore can do” and “one minute can be too long.”
He said that for the past nine and a half years, each day on the job has brought a new experience, though Wednesday was one he won’t soon forget.
“When you’re out there on the ocean, you give help whenever it’s needed because one day you may need it,” Kilar said. “Whenever I’m out there, I feel like the big brother, looking out for everybody.
“I did everything in my heart to help them.”
∫ Coco Zickos, business writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or czickos@kauaipubco.com
