CELPIP Listening Part 4 Practice Test: Fishing Crew Rescues Kayaker

NARRATOR: A lobster crew from southwestern Nova Scotia is being credited with saving the life of a stranded kayaker on Tuesday afternoon. Captain Darlene Comeau and her two deckhands were returning to the wharf near Yarmouth when one of them noticed something orange bobbing among the rocks of a small, uninhabited island. Through binoculars, the crew spotted a man frantically waving a paddle. The kayaker, a forty-four-year-old visitor from Ontario, had set out that morning despite a forecast warning of strengthening winds. When the swells intensified, his kayak capsized, and he managed to scramble onto the island, where he had been shivering for nearly four hours. Because the water surrounding the island is too shallow for a fishing vessel, Comeau's son navigated a small inflatable dinghy through the surf to retrieve him. The man was treated for mild hypothermia at a hospital in Yarmouth and released the same evening. Comeau, who has fished these waters for three decades, was characteristically modest, insisting that any crew would have done exactly the same. The Coast Guard is reminding recreational paddlers to consult marine forecasts and to carry a waterproof radio. The kayaker's own phone, sealed in a dry bag, was swept away along with his boat.