Two twelve year old boys were in danger when their inflatable rubber boat collided with ice and burst on Hvaleyrarvatn in Hafnarfjördur last Saturday. The boys dove into the icy water and swam 100 – 150 meters to shore. Morgunbladid reports that the mother of one of the boys witnessed the accident and also dove into the water.
“We were on a two rubber boat amusing ourselves by colliding into ice,” one of the boys, Styrmir Kristinsson, told Morgunbaldid. “We didn’t see the piece of ice that caused the leak but suddenly the air started to leak out of the boat at an incredibly quick pace.”
The mother, Hildur Lindberg, of the other boy, Ástvaldur Einar Lindberg, said she went into the water in all her clothes after seeing that it was difficult for them to swim the distance back. “It was such a long swim I almost gave up, ” said Hildur.
After reaching her son, Hildur told his friend, who had swum a different route to land, to call for help. The first car that Styrmir waved down stopped as Stymir collapsed.
“The man was so kind, he jumped into the water and pulled my son and me out. He got us into the warm car and called the emergency hot-line. I will never forget this, it was really incredible”, said Hildur.
At the ER unit, Ástvaldurs temperature went down to 33 degrees Celsius and he was diagnosed with a mild case of pneumonia. Styrmir’s temperature had also dropped but both boys were in good spirits. They agreed that they would not venture out into Hvaleyrarvatn again without wearing life preservers. “It really taught us a lesson,” said Ásvaldur. “It was so difficult to swim in the cold water wearing our clothes but I set myself the goal not to be scared because I believed that I would reach land and that [belief] was a great help.”
