Suffolk police Marine Bureau officers pulled a Queens man to safety Tuesday morning after his kayak flipped in the Great South Bay, officials said.
Officers Robert Jenkins and Raymond Cairo were on patrol at 11 a.m. near the Fire Island Inlet and Buoy 7 when they spotted the overturned kayak, police said. Benjamin Chen, 31, of Flushing, who had been in the kayak when it flipped, was found a few hundred feet away, “clinging to the side of another man’s kayak” and wearing a life jacket, police said.
The other kayaker was unable to paddle to shore with Chen hanging on, police said. The officers were able to get Chen aboard their boat and took him and the kayak to shore, police said.
Chen was treated on the boat for exposure to cold water, police said, and the kayaker who assisted him made it to shore safely.
