BARRY MARKOWITZ / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-BULLETIN
Clayton Espanto handed the lines of the fishing boat Margo to a Honolulu Fire Department captain yesterday as they docked at Heeia Kea Boat Harbor with several kayakers who were rescued after facing 12-foot sets outside the reef.
Fishing pals save
kayakers in distress
Two fishermen are being called heroes for their role in rescuing a group of kayakers caught in treacherous seas off Windward Oahu yesterday.
Hank Howlett, the owner of the 23-foot fishing boat Margo and his fishing partner, Clayton Espanto, rescued nine of 10 kayakers who got separated in high waves, foul weather and poor visibility after leaving Malaekahana.
"Those guys really were heroes today," said Fire Capt. Kenison Tejada.
Tejada said an informal kayaking group planned to paddle to Kahana Bay and got into trouble.
Howlett said he and Espanto were about a mile offshore of Punaluu in his 23-foot seacraft when they saw two people in a double kayak and got a mayday radio call.
They pulled the two kayakers in and learned that their friends also needed help.
"We kept heading toward Kahuku over half to three-fourths of a mile," picking them up "one here, two there," he said. "The last group was almost in the surf line, with waves 8 to 12 feet breaking."
Meanwhile, he said a rope from a kayak they were trying to tow got tangled on the boat's prop in the big surf.
Espanto jumped in the high waves and cut the rope off, Howlett said, crediting him with saving the boat.
"He got on the back of the boat in treacherous seas, a really spooky environment. I don't think anybody would have survived if we'd lost the boat."
Normally, he wouldn't take more than four people on his boat, Howlett said, and the nine he rescued were "all big adults," men and women, ranging from 20s to 70s in age, he said.
He said one man refused to get into the boat and Howlett was afraid to leave without him.
The man was apparently the owner of the kayaks and was trying to gather them, he said.
Howlett said he threatened the man, telling him he would get in trouble with the Coast Guard. "I told him, 'The kayaks will wash ashore. It's not worth your life. Get the hell out of the water and get on board.'"
Howlett said he waited with the lone kayak until a helicopter arrived to help him in, then headed for Kaneohe, where the channel was closed out by 12-foot breakers.
"We caught a big-assed wave and surfed about half a mile. We rode a couple of big waves in. It scared the hell out of me. Not once but twice in less than an hour we thought we were goners," he said.
Howlett said his passengers were "cold, exhausted, scared and grateful" but not seriously hurt. "They tried to gives us money but you don't accept money when you save someone's life."
Howlett said he normally doesn't fish so close to shore, but his son Michael told him he had a good chance of catching ono there.
"I guess it was a lucky coincidence," Michael Howlett said.
