Stranded Kayakers Were 'At Mercy of Wind and Tides': Police Chief

NORTH FORK, NY - As a churning, choppy Long Island Sound sent surf crashing to the North Fork shoreline Monday, rescue units headed somberly back to their respective headquarters after news that the body of a fourth kayaker who'd set off on a doomed voyage Sunday, had been found.

The grim discovery brought the number of dead to two, after a group of four, including a mother and her little girl, 8, endured a terrifying ordeal, being blown across the raging Sound Sunday night.

The four set out on a a water excursion Sunday, leaving with a kayak and a stand-up paddleboard from Hammonasset Park in Madison, Conn., authorities said.

But Sunday's fierce winds and raging tides pushed the watercraft clear across the Sound, where the mother and child were found stranded and screaming for help on an Orient beach in the early hours of Monday morning.

Southold Town Police Chief Martin Flatley explained how he believes the tragedy unfolded.

"I’m sure the conditions on the Connecticut side were probably a lot better than here as the wind was out of the north and was most likely calmer near the coastline. But I would imagine they got out too far and the tide and wind started taking them out, making it impossible to paddle in against those elements. Once far enough offshore, they were at the mercy of the wind and the tides."

Coast Guard Lt. Matthew Richards said the high winds gusting at about 40 miles per hour blew the four about 14 miles across the Sound, according to the Associated Press.

"They were just doing a day trip around Hammonasset," Richards said in an AP report. "But they were overcome by the gale-force winds. At one point it capsized the kayak."

The two men died and the mother and her daughter were treated for hypothermia at Eastern Long Island Hospital.

The body of Ferdinand Lagos, 39, of Manchester, Conn., was found after a search Monday that spanned the Southold shoreline as rescuers scoured the rough waters for signs of the missing man.

According to Southold Town Police, at 3:43 a.m. an Orient resident was awakened by the yelling for help from the beach in front of their house and called police.

Upon the arrival of an officer, he found a mother and child on the beach suffering from hypothermia, Delfina Reynoso, 26, and her 8-year-old daughter, of Hartford, Conn.

The group had launched a kayak and stand-up paddleboard from Hammonasset Park in Madison, CT with Abdias Ventura, 30, of Hartford, and Lagos, of Manchester, Conn.

The AP reports that Ventura was Reynosa's boyfriend.

Wind and tide pushed the two watercraft offshore by 9 p.m. Sunday night; Reynoso and her daughter landed onshore in Orient and the deceased body of Ventura was located onshore about a quarter mile west of the women, police said; he died of hypothermia, according to the AP.

A Coast search for Lagos continued Monday morning after he went missing and his body was found off the shore of Connecticut around 12:15 p.m.

The U.S. Coast Guard coordinated the search, which included Southold Police, as well as the Cutchogue, Southold, Greenport. East Marion and Orient fire departments.

There was a small craft advisory posted for the area Sunday because of the wind conditions, Richards told the AP. "On sunny days it feels like it's a nice time to go out there," he said. "But conditions can change very fast and the water is still very cold. It's very dangerous."