Serendipity saved an elderly Teslin man from a chilly death last weekend, when chance brought a couple of sharp-eyed birders and well-prepared police officers to the rescue.

At about 9:30 Saturday morning, the 74-year-old Teslin man set his 14-foot, flat-bottomed boat into the choppy waters of Teslin Lake and headed for the opposite shore where he planned to go hunting.

But about two kilometres out, the high winds and waves capsized the punt, sending the man into the chilly water without a lifejacket.

Luckily, two people who were at the bird watching station above the campground where the boat launch is located had been keeping an eye on the boat. They saw it tip and immediately called for help.

Cpl. Shaun Pike was at home enjoying a Saturday morning with his family when he received the call at 9:55.

"It just happened that I had our patrol boat hitched up to the RCMP vehicle,” he told the Star today

"Had I not, it would have taken me 15, 20 minutes to get (the boat) out of the garage and onto the trailer.”

Pike jumped in the police SUV, picked up his fellow officer and the two sped to the boat launch.

There, two other Teslin residents were wringing their hands with frustration. They too had seen the boat go over, but could do nothing to help as their own boat was out of gas.

"Everyone was feeling pretty excitable at that point,” the corporal recalled. "But we launched the boat in record time and were gone.”

As the officers approached the capsized vessel, they spotted the man clinging to the edge.

"When we got him into the boat, he was shivering so badly that he couldn't talk properly,” Pike said.

They stripped off the man's soaking clothes and wrapped him in blankets to keep him warm, then tarps to keep the wind off him.

"It was incredibly windy out there,” Pike said. "The boat was not suitable for that type of water.”

The officers could tell from the man's colouring – " a deep, deep red,” said Pike – that he was suffering from hypothermia and wouldn't have survived much longer in the frigid water.

"He told us later that if he hadn't seen us, he wouldn't have been able to hold on any longer,” Pike said.

The man was taken to the Teslin clinic for treatment of mid-stage hypothermia, then transported to Whitehorse General Hospital.

He asked that his name not be released.