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Father, son rescued near Bellingham by Coast Guard

FAIRHAVEN, Wash. — Two boaters who went missing in separate small crafts were rescued by a Coast Guard aircrew in the water near the south side of Bellingham on Thursday night. (See video attached above)

Coast Guard officials said they originally received a report around 8:00 p.m. that “a 15 year-old male in a 12-foot grey dinghy and his 50-year-old father in a 10-foot orange kayak had been missing for almost an hour.”

“The reporting source stated that while he was aboard the father's 52-foot pleasure craft anchored 100 yards west of Boulevard Park, the son departed the anchored vessel in the dinghy with the intention of going east to Boulevard Park,” Coast Guard officials said.

According to officials, the father saw his son lose on oar and realized his son could not make it to shore before departing in the kayak to get him.

Both males were later located in shallow water in the grey dinghy, about 3.5 miles north of the anchored pleasure craft,  by a helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Port Angeles. They were later transported to emergency medical service personnel at Bellingham International Airport.

Also assisting in the emergency response were local agency partners and a Bellingham Fire Department marine unit.

“They had been missing for over two and a half hours and were cold and wet, but otherwise responsive and alert,” officials said.

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