A terrified dog was saved in a dramatic rescue after he was blown out to sea on an inflatable kayak in England.
Bruce, an Alsatian, was carried away from Bamburgh Beach after a “sudden gust of wind” pushed the kayak into the water, according to reports.
For nearly two hours, the dog drifted farther and farther from shore. By the time rescuers found him, Bruce was about 2.5 miles from where he first went missing.
Skipper Jimmy Reid, who helped lead the rescue, said finding Bruce was like searching for “a needle in a haystack.”
“The owner tried to swim out after the dog,” Reid told BBC North East. “In my opinion, he did the responsible thing. He just wasn’t catching up, and he turned around. He went back to the beach, called the Coast Guard, and it went from there.”
The Coast Guard alerted Serenity Farne Island Boat Tours, whose crew quickly joined the search.
“What started as a normal day around the Farne Islands quickly became a race against time,” the company wrote on Facebook.
Reid was taking guests to Inner Farne when he heard the Coast Guard call about an inflatable kayak carrying a dog that had been blown out to sea in strong winds.
Reid and crewman Aaron Fordy immediately began looking for the missing pup.
“With every minute passing, hope was fading,” the company wrote. “The strong westerly wind was carrying the kayak further and further out to sea.”
Then Fordy spotted something in the distance.
It was the kayak.
At first, the rescuers feared the worst because they could not see Bruce. But moments later, a head appeared inside the kayak.
The dog was still alive.
The crew tried to rescue Bruce by grabbing his harness, but he slipped free and fell back into the sea.
Fordy then lunged over the side of the boat and grabbed Bruce by the scruff of his neck. As Fordy nearly got pulled overboard himself, Reid grabbed his leg, and the two men somehow managed to haul the dog safely onto the boat.
Footage from the rescue showed the crew searching the water before spotting the kayak floating in the distance with Bruce still inside.
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After the rescue, a crew member could be heard reporting to the Coast Guard, “We’re in position with the kayak. I have retrieved the dog from the kayak.”
Bruce was later seen wrapped in towels on the boat, wagging his tail after his terrifying ordeal.
The beloved dog was brought back to shore and reunited with his owner, Arron.
“I don’t know what I would have done if he wasn’t found,” Arron told Chronicle Live. “I couldn’t bring myself to leave him, but there’s nothing I could do when he got so far out.”
“Bruce is okay, home safe and sound, thanks to the Serenity Crew and everyone involved,” he added.
What began as a frightening accident ended with a relieved owner, a grateful dog and a rescue crew being praised for refusing to give up.