Photo By Tracey Prediger
Travis Van Hill’s family wait for the wheelbarrow launch
Updated at 7: 10 pm
Travis Van Hill’s family and friends are still unaccounted for.
They travelled on a pontoon boat, following RCMP divers and Vernon Search and Rescue members to the site of the overturned Locust boat on Wednesday afternoon.
“RCMP divers tried to get into the cockpit,” Travis ‘ good friend Chris Burton says. “They didn’t think it was safe enough to go in.”
While Burton understands security-based decisions, he is less forgiving of government bureaucracy and “butt cover”.”
“There is a huge level of frustration with many of us and the government right now.”
From” us”, Burton is referring to local Navy companies that run the boat and the heavy equipment needed to fix their friend’s boat. “We had the support there to do it yesterday and they dragged their feet here for four hours in the parking lot,” he says.
Their offers to help the company, Transport Canada, dropped, “we were told ‘you guys don’t know safety,’ but we know. We’re here every day.”
The family is now being told that the work will have to be handled by a marine engineer.
“Part of the problem is that the navel that feeds the boat caught on the back you see floating… there are all kinds of mud out there,” Burton explains.
The boat has been moving since it returned and the Nets have been dragging for days.
“So you just can’t get in and lift it,” he says, “you either have to detach or take the boat to a safe place.”
Until decisions are made by those responsible for the investigation, the family’s frustration at not knowing their loved one’s fate only grows.
Tracey Prediger
Update: 3: 35 pm
RCMP divers headed to the site of the overturned Locust boat on Lake Okanagan on Wednesday afternoon.
They are accompanied by two Vernon Search and rescue ships, the Legacy and Safe Landing.
Coralie Nairn of the VSAR says her team was part of the initial response to find the captain of an overturned boat late Monday night, and throughout the day on Tuesday.
“Due to the size of our boats, we are transporting the dive team and RCMP members to the scene and providing them with any assistance they may need,” Nairn says.
All search efforts so far have been unable to find Travis Van Hill.
VSAR is providing strictly support to RCMP members. “Because of the size or our boat, we are transporting their divers,” she says. “We will help them with everything they need.”
Along with two VSAR boats and the RCMP dive boat, friends and family of the missing captain are on board a pontoon boat, all headed to the site.
Original: 1: 19 pm
Friends and family of missing ship captain Travis Van Hill are waiting on Vernon’s Boat Launch for any news when it becomes available.
So far, there is little information about his whereabouts.
The Locust ship Van Hill was working on capsized during the windstorm on Monday night on Lake Okanagan.
Police and members of Central Okanagan and Vernon Search and Rescue have combed the coasts and conducted searches in the water. So far, Van Hill has not been found.
David Young is a family friend and the owner of Anchors Asibay, a maritime service in Vernon. He says that when he learned about the fate of his good friend, he rushed to the spot with a diver.
“He looked through all the windows and doors of the ship, but he couldn’t see Travis,” Young said.
Young’s theory is that Van Hill may be trapped inside. The life jacket Van Hill would have worn is designed to inflate when water hits him.
“If it inflated, he would have to take it off and swim down to get out of a submerged window or door,” explains Young.
The last words anyone heard from Van Hill were in the marine mayday channel, those who listened heard him say ” I’m coming down.”
Members of the Central Okanagan and vernon Search & rescuers are standing by ready to return to the water with RCMP divers.
A separate search is still underway on Lake Kalamalka for a kayaker who went missing in the same storm.
The RCMP is relying on divers and drone footage to help them in that search.
Photo By Maddy Pool
Travis Van Hill, captain of the missing ship
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