(UPDATE: April 23 @ 11:40 am) - Authorities in the United States have now recovered to bodies from the water during the search for a pair of men who went missing while kayaking near Victoria this weekend.
San Juan County Sheriff Eric Peter confirmed to NowMedia that both bodies have been recovered from the water and turned over to the San Juan County Coroner's Office.
"The identity of the persons recovered has yet to be determined and out of respect for the families, the Sheriff's Office will not speculate as to whether or not these are the missing Canadian kayakers," he said.
Peter said the San Juan County Sheriff's Office received a call about the first body floating in the water against the rocks in Grandma's Cove, on the southwest side of San Juan Island, around 3 pm Monday.
Deputies responded on land, launched the Sheriff's Office boat and recovered the body before turning it over to the Coroner's Office.
Another call came in this morning at 6:30 am regarding a body floating in the water in Middle Channel, south of Cattle Point at the southern tip of San Juan Island and west of Iceberg Point at the southern tip of Lopez Island.
Once again, deputies responded on land before launching the Sheriff's Office boat to recover the body, which was also handed over to the Coroner's Office.
(UPDATE: April 23 @ 10:10 am) - A sad discovery has been made during the search for a pair of men who went missing while kayaking near Victoria over the weekend.
RCMP spokesperson Cpl. James Grandy has confirmed that searchers in the United States have found a body in the San Juan Islanders.
Only one body has been found, he noted, and it has not yet been identified as one of the missing kayakers.
Daniel MacAlpine, 36, and Nicolas West, 26, went missing Saturday while paddling between D'Arcy Island and Island View Beach, just north of Victoria.
According to police, the pair were in a tandem kayak, which was also found in US waters in the San Juan Islands.
The search is ongoing today on both the Canadian and US side of the border.
With files from the Canadian Press.
(Original story: April 22 @ 1:30 pm) - The search for two missing men whose last-known location was on a tandem kayak in the ocean north of Victoria is ongoing.
The RCMP has confirmed to NowMedia that the men’s kayak was located in US waters, just off Henry Island in the San Juan Islands, but there’s still no sign of the two men.
According to police, Daniel MacAlpine, 36, and Nicolas West, 26, were kayaking from D’Arcy Island to Island View Beach on Saturday afternoon when they went missing.
The intensive search for the missing men now involves authorities in both BC and the US.
In Canadian waters, multiple agencies are focusing their efforts north of where the men were reportedly kayaking on Saturday, near Coal Island and the upper Gulf Islands.
American authorities are focusing on the San Juan Islands area where the men’s kayak was discovered empty.
MacAlpine is described as around 5’10” and 150 pounds, while West is around 6’5” and 170 pounds. Both men are Caucasian.
Anyone with information that could assist investigators in this case is urged to contact the North Saanich RCMP at 250-656-3931.