On Sunday, the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby hosted its annual Kids’ Day fishing tournament on the Steamship Authority pier in Oak Bluffs. The prospect of hundreds of excited kids and adults lining the railing is not something organizers take lightly.
Each year, longtime Kids’ Day chairman Cooper “Coop” Gilkes arranges for a volunteer boater to sit off the pier in the event there is an accident. Last week, he enlisted Kenny Berkov, a seasonal Vineyard Haven resident, to help out.
The wind was blowing strong out of the southwest and the tide was rising Sunday morning. When Ken left Tashmoo in his 26-foot Parker, he considered turning back, but decided he would round West Chop and see what conditions were like off Oak Bluffs — plus he’d told Coop he would be there. The morning proved uneventful until he decided to leave and go fishing.
“I was there just in case one of the kids got in trouble,” Ken said. “Coop wanted sunup, and I got there about 6:15, or 6:30, something like that. I was just about to leave. It was a quarter to eight and I was going around the top of the dock and I heard a call — you know my hearing is really bad — but yet I heard it.”
A man fishing from a kayak had overturned and was in the water, and he was in trouble. He was not wearing his PFD, which was securely attached to the seat of his overturned kayak and of no use to him.
The embarrassed kayaker, who agreed to speak to The Times if he was not identified, said it was an event “that placed my life in jeopardy.”
He thinks an adjustment of his seat to make it higher, which changed the center of gravity, set the stage for him to overturn when he leaned over. It happened in an instant.
He saw Ken leaving, and yelled. There was no response. He yelled again. Nothing. “Then, as he was moving further away, and I was, it seemed to me, going to end up in Woods Hole, he turned and saw me and the predicament I was in, as I could not gain enough leverage to lift the kayak to reach the life jacket.”
Ken said he saw the kayaker in the water and went to his assistance. “So I threw him a line, and he let go of the kayak and he started pulling on the line, and I bent over and I took the kayak and I was tying it to my cleat and when I looked up he was washed away — he had lost the line.”
Ken untied the kayak, which was anchored, and went to retrieve the man. “He was drifting against the tide and he was trying to swim, and he was so tired,” Ken said. The kayaker was so tired he could not climb into the boat, so Ken attached a ladder he had stowed away for swimmers. “I pulled him over, and he was like a dead bass. He just lay on the bottom of the boat. Oh my God, he was worn out.”
Ken slowly made his way into Oak Bluffs Harbor with the kayaker and his kayak. The man told Ken that only the day before, he was leaving Oak Bluffs Harbor when he was stopped and told by an Oak Bluffs Harbor assistant that he was required by law to wear a PFD while in his kayak.
In the aftermath of his accident, the kayaker said he lost everything on board, including his cell phone and fishing rods, but “above all, thanks to Ken, just a good citizen making sure the kids were OK, I did not lose my life.”
He said Ken refused all his offers of gifts and monetary thanks. “My hope is that there are more people like Ken on and off the water,” he said.
By state law, kayakers and canoeists are required to wear a PFD from Sept. 15 to May 15. Safety dictates that all boaters, particularly when alone, wear a PFD at all times of the year.
The kayaker is 57, and considers himself a strong man. He is a father and a grandfather. Why wasn’t he wearing a PFD? “Because men think they’re invincible,” he said.
“But the water is unforgiving, and once you find yourself in the water alone, you realize that,” he said. He vowed he would wear his PFD in the future.
Once the kayaker was safely on land, Ken returned to Tashmoo rather than go fishing. He said he’d had enough excitement for one day.
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