Braving the waters

Geoffrey Taylor is a real life hero.

Originally from Chamberlains, CBS, in Newfoundland, the young man moved to Labrador West last year with his fiancÉe Angela Abbott and last week Mr. Taylor was the proud recipient of a Certificate of Commendation for Bravery from the Governor General of Canada.

"I don't consider myself to be anything special," he said in an interview with the Aurora after receiving his certificate in the June 9 council meeting. "I never had time to think about it. I just did what had to be done."

According to Mr. Taylor, it started out like any other trip. He moved to Little Grand Rapids in Manitoba in 2004 to be near his now- fiancÉe who was working as a teacher in the small First Nations community.

It was a town accessible only by air, but even then he said it was a 20-minute boat ride to the airstrip. He enjoyed working and volunteering at Ms. Abbott's school and on a professional development day in October a group of friends and colleagues decided to go to Winnipeg - an hour and a half away by plane - to do some shopping.

"When we left we had our lifejackets on," Mr. Taylor explained the boat ride. "We left the lifejackets in the boat and they (the operators) said they'd bring them back with them when they came to pick us up."

After the day trip, everyone was eager to get home and when the operators came to collect the passengers - forgetting the lifejackets - Mr. Taylor said they decided to board the boat anyway and take their chances. In hindsight, he admits that wasn't the best decision.

"It was a stormy day," he pointed out. "The other boat (that was travelling with the group) ran short of gas and the operator of our boat didn't see that they'd run out of gas and didn't hear me yelling and cursing at him. By the time he saw them, it was too late and we hit them."

Six people were thrown from Mr. Taylor's boat into an icy lake. The other watercraft was pushed into the middle of lake far away from the group and unable to help.

From then on, the Newfoundland native said he ran on pure adrenalin.

He swam to a piece of luggage and started yelling at everyone to get back to the damaged boat.

"There was so much going on, no one heard me, but fortunately one lady heard, so she managed to spread the word and get everyone back to the boat," he recalled. "One woman started to panic and started to float away from us, so I threw her a rope and got her back to the boat to hold on."

Once Mr. Taylor felt everyone was relatively safe holding onto the punctured boat, he grabbed a half-empty gas can and began swimming the 300 metres to shore.

He remembers the water being so cold it literally took his breath away.

"You would be yelling and it would come out in a whisper," he exclaimed. "There was six of us in the boat, but only two of us could swim. Swimming to shore was the first thing that came to my mind. I never had a choice."

It didn't take too long before Mr. Taylor hit the shore of Family Lake - although it felt like forever - and he quickly found help at a nearby fishing lodge.

A man from Calgary rushed to the Mr. Taylor's aid, grabbed his boat and the men went in search of the cold, wet group.

Ms. Abbott was one of the passengers who couldn't swim and said she was terrified from start to finish. She didn't panic, but when the man she loved decided he would swim ashore, she wanted to go with him. She's glad he convinced her to stay with the boat.

"We eventually drifted in," she explained. "We made it to the woods and were just waiting for someone to find us."

Her fiance showed up with help a short time later and everyone was safely brought back to the fishing lodge for a hot shower, some warm blankets and a cup of hot chocolate.

In retrospect, Mr. Taylor feels he did what anyone else would have done in going for help. He's just happy no one was hurt and doesn't see himself as any kind of hero. The certificate from Michaelle Jean was nice, he said, but unnecessary.

Ms. Abbott feels differently.

"I wrote the letter (for the award)," she stated. "I sent it in about a month later. It took a long time by the time they followed up and did an investigation, but he deserves it. We're very lucky he was there. It could have been a very different outcome."

Although Mr. Taylor said the certificate will probably end up in a photo album somewhere, his soon-to-be wife has plans for it to sit in a frame for everyone to see. And, she added, there will be lots of copies made for his family.

In the meantime, the couple has some final thoughts for anyone travelling on the water.

"When you grow up around the water you sometimes take it for granted and don't think about safety," Mr. Taylor noted. "We had a right to refuse that ride when there were no lifejackets. It all happened so quickly. I have a new respect for the water."