Kelowna RCMP say "a real tragedy” was avoided over the weekend when two officers spotted two boys in trouble on Okanagan Lake.
Corporal Jesse O'Donaghey says the officers were doing boat patrols on the water on Sunday when they noticed the two boys, ages 12 and 13, floating near Peachland on an inexpensive rubber dinghy.
“The pair were fishing together along the shoreline when sudden strong winds, gusting to what the officers approximated to be 50 km/hr, pushed the boys into the middle of the lake, and that was about an estimated half a kilometer from the shore.”
O’Donaghey says the boys were not wearing lifejackets and did not have a paddle with them.
The officers brought the boys on board the RCMP boat and took them to shore to their parents after talking to them about the danger they had put themselves in.