While drinking beers and watching a college football game, two men on Bainbridge had a bright idea: hop in kayaks and paddle to Seattle. At night. In January.

They made it all the way across – with the help of rescue crews.

At about 2 a.m. on Friday, emergency responders got a call that one of the kayakers had capsized.

The 28-year-old man was clinging to the side of his kayak while his friend, a 36-year-old, used a cell phone to call a girlfriend, who, in turn, called 911, said Seattle Fire Department spokeswoman Dana Vander Houwen.

The call sparked a multi-agency search.

On-shore firefighters with binoculars spotted faint flickering lights about 2 miles off from the Magnolia area of Seattle. The men were were brought to shore on the Seattle fireboat Leschi.

The 28-year-old was suffering from hypothermia after spending about 45 minutes in the water. He was excruciatingly cold and could barely speak, according to Seattle police. The older man was also cold and wet from rain, but conscious and alert.

Police said both men had the strong odor of beer on the two.

The men were wearing life jackets but were dressed in street clothes.

The speed limit on Highway 305 is dropping from 55 to 50 miles per hour.

The new 50-mph speed limit signs will be posted on Jan. 18 along most of the stretch between the Winslow ferry terminal and Poulsbo.

“Speed studies, collisions, citizen requests and speed zone route consistency were all integral components of our speed zone reduction on Bainbridge Island and within Kitsap County,” said Kelly Stowe, a state Department of Transportation spokeswoman.

Read the rest of the story here.

A nationwide hunt for a man on the run for over a month after he allegedly tried to murder his ex-girlfriend and her son in their Bainbridge home ended with his arrest Friday night – in Chandler, Arizona.

Edward Mark Olsen turned himself into Chandler police officers at about 8 p.m. Friday, according to a news release issued by the Bainbridge Island Police Department. The 49-year-old, a wanted parolee from California at the time of his crime for assaulting the same woman, is being held on charges of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, attempted murder and burglary.

On Nov. 29, police say that Olsen broke into the the car and then the John Adams Lane home of his 39-year-old former girlfriend in the early morning hours while she and her 12-year-old son slept. It’s alleged that Olsen doused the two with gasoline in their bed and threatened to light it on fire.

The incident took place two weeks after another attack on the woman.

The woman and her son were able to escape the home and persuade neighbors on nearby Wyatt Way to call the police. Olsen fled as well.

Since then, Bainbridge detectives, working with the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service, conducted a nationwide search for Olsen. Reports placed him in Florida, Nevada and California before Olsen called the Chandler police Friday night, according to the release. He told them that he had outstanding felony warrants and wanted to turn himself in. He was arrested without incident.
–Kitsap Sun staff