Rescued kayaker recalls terrifying ordeal on 'tiny ledge' in Owey Island cave

A man rescued from a sea cave off Owey Island on Sunday evening has told of his ‘living nightmare’.

Malachy Doyle went for a ‘wee trip’ to Owey Island in his kayak on quite waters, but he told how he feared for his life after encountering difficulty in a sea cave amid choppy waters.

Such was the perilous nature of the situation, the 69-year-old writer says that only for a Ziploc bag to keep his phone dry he would still be ‘there, on that tiny ledge, frozen solid’.

At around 3pm, Malachy was able to raise the alarm.

His difficulty began when, having decided against entering the cave due to the ‘churning sea inside’, a freak wave hit from behind, overturning his vessel and coping him into the water, man and boat hurtled deep into a cave.

“I somehow held onto the kayak and paddle, but it was half full of water and I couldn't get back in,” he recalled. “I spent about 30 minutes being buffeted around the cave, trying to hold on, and not swallow too much water.

“Eventually, and incredibly luckily, we were thrown towards the only possible escape route - a high ledge above the surging waters. I grabbed the rock with both hands, abandoning the kayak to the waves, and climbed up to a ledge, eight feet or so above the water level. Amazingly my phone, in a Ziploc bag around my neck, was still just about working.”

Malachy frantically tried to contact 999, but a lack of phone signal proved problematic. Eventually, Malachy was able to give his details to the emergency operator.

When the charge on his battery ran out, Malachy was left to wait and wonder.

He said:  “For over an hour I waited, shivering in my wet clothes, hoping beyond hope that the message had got through to the right people.

“No one knew I was out, no one would venture that way as the sea was much rougher by now, and there was severe danger of hypothermia setting in.”

A major operation was launched with the Malin Head Coast Guard tasking a number of agencies to assist in the air-and-sea search.

The Rescue 118 helicopter arrived from its base at Strandhill in Sligo. The Arranmore lifeboat and Bunbeg Coast Guard were also involved. Several other vessels from the locality aided in the operation.

Just before 5pm, Oscar Duffy and his crew went to the mouth of the cave ‘one last time’. Malachy heard the loudhailer and yelled back. The Arranmore lifeboat crew deployed a drone into the cave to determine Malachy’s location.

He said: “The sea was too high, and way too rough by then, for a normal rescue boat to get in to me, but about an hour later the tide had turned and it had  calmed enough for them to send in Arranmore's smaller y-boat inflatable, manned by the heroic JJ and Evan O'Donnell.”

Malachy was flown to Letterkenny University Hospital by the Rescue 118 helicopter before being released on Monday.

Malachy has extended his gratitude to the emergency services, including Malin Head Coast Guard, Rescue 118, Bunbeg and Mulroy Coast Guard, Arranmore RNLI, the Fire Service, An Garda Siochana, the ambulance service and Letterkenny hospital, all of whom he says ‘played their part in saving my life’.

He remains indebted to locals Oscar Duffy, David Keller, Tom Ham and Manus O'Boyle who played a massive role in the rescue.

He said: “A final and massive shout-out to the inventor of Ziploc waterproof bags - if you hadn't kept my phone dry I'd probably still be there, on that tiny ledge, frozen solid.

“One of my nine lives definitely gone.”