Four rescued in Kaua'i sea cave
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau
LIHU'E, Kaua'i — A team of Kaua'i lifeguards — two on duty, one off duty and one retired — joined forces Monday to save four residents from "Two-door Cave," a sea cave along the Na Pali Coast where they were trapped by crashing surf.
The four, two men and two women, had apparently ridden their private inflatable boat into the cave during a lull in the swells. It was three hours before they were back out, shivering and exhausted but not injured. Their boat remained inside yesterday, last seen high on a dark, rocky shelf at the back of the cave.
"It was pretty much the heaviest rescue I've ever been involved in," said Mark McKamey, 39, a county lifeguard from Anahola. McKamey and fellow lifeguard Chris Pico, 25, of Ha'ena, were stationed at the Hanalei Pavilion, and responded on a single Yamaha Waverunner to a report of a flare seen near the mouth of the cave.
A third lifeguard, off-duty Gavin Kennelly, came by in a boat and joined the rescue. Retired lifeguard Liko Hookano, captain of a passing tour catamaran, positioned his boat near the shore to take the victims aboard.
The cave goes deep into the rock cliff near Hanakoa Valley and has two entrances. In calm weather, a small boat can enter through one side, and go out the other. There have been previous cases of boats being trapped inside, and commercial tour boats have generally stopped the practice of transiting the cave.
McKamey said that when the fire crews arrived, the four victims had been in the cave for two hours, their boat useless on the rocks. Swells crashing into the cliff nearly filled the cave entrance. McKamey said he would race in, drop Pico off, and then wait outside while Pico brought one victim to a pickup point. He waited, timing the swells with the help of Hookano, and raced in to pick the two up.
"I guess that cave roof is 20 to 30 feet high. At one point a swell came up and the nose of the ski nearly hit the roof," McKamey said. Another time, he and Pico were both rolled off the machine, but managed to recover it. Pico brought three of the victims off the rocks, and Kennelly got the fourth.
Hookano, 52, said the lifeguard team tried calling for additional help, but could not make radio contact with anyone from the remote cliffside. Eventually, they worked out the system that resulted in the safe recovery of the victims, he said.
"Those (lifeguards who) went in there, I saw the expressions on their faces. That wasn't something they wanted to do," Hookano said.
"The currents were strong. The winds were blowing, and each time they went in, they had only seconds."
