Boaters rescue man

A MAN was pulled from the canal by boaters at 7:30am on Sunday morning from the Visitor Moorings by Fenny Stratford Lock on the Grand Union Canal writes John Howard.

The middle aged man apparently disturbed another boater's dog at approximately 3:30am, but moved on when the boater switched on his lights to investigate.

Pulled him out

Some four hours later, whilst Mark and Linda (nb The Pearl) were returning to their boat after walking their dog (not having noticed the man on their outward journey), they realised there was a man shivering in the water by the stern of a neighbouring boat. After pulling him from the water and wrapping the poor chap in blankets, another boater Alan (nb WOL) called the ambulance service.

Whilst waiting for the ambulance Mark told me that his first thought was that the chap had started painting work on the hull a little early for a Sunday morning (as the actual boat owner had been seen carrying out end of season paint repairs the previous day) but after further investigation quickly realised that chap wasn't wearing waders, was thoroughly soaked and was shaking profusely.

Confused

The gentleman couldn't recall his name, but seemed to think that he had been heading to Bletchley, but had no idea how long he had been in the water. At one stage he even thought that the boat behind where he had fallen, was his boat. Although at this stage it isn't clear if this was in fact the case.

Soon afterwards a paramedic was on the scene, quickly followed by an ambulance which whisked him off to hospital.

No more is known at this stage, but the chap was obviously very lucky to be found by Mark and Linda, as perhaps another hour in the water may have been a much sadder story to report.