KEALAKEKUA BAY — It was another morning Derrick Carvalho just planned to relax at Kealakekua Bay when he spotted something peculiar. Something was swimming in circles offshore, struggling to stay afloat.

Upon further examination, he was surprised to spot a bewildered boar, fighting to keep its flailing body above the surface.

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It didn’t seem like there was much fight left in the animal, either. Crashing around 75 feet from shore, at times only its snout poked above surface.

“It looked tired,” Carvalho said.

Jim and Jane Pittenger, visiting from Florence, Oregon, were next to happen on the scene. And what they saw Wednesday morning alarmed them.

“Clearly disoriented,” Jim said the boar’s head sunk lower with each turn. When the boar tried to swim toward land, it retreated, seemingly afraid of the surf. There were also times when its whole head was under water.

“There’s nothing like watching an animal slowly drown,” Jim said. “It’s such a sad and pathetic experience, getting sadder and sadder.”

That’s when local artist Tamara Tavernier, also known as Rainbow, joined the beach crowd around 7:30 a.m., a half hour or so after Carvalho first noticed the animal.

Carvalho, who knew Rainbow as an avid swimmer from the area, asked if she could save it. After viewing the boar through binoculars, Rainbow swam out with a rope, approaching the animal head on. Jim worried that Rainbow would not be able to swim to the rescue in time.

Upon her approach, the boar thrashed and backed away in fear. That’s when Rainbow opted for a second strategy, circling behind the boar and imitating a shark by charging at it with speed.

“It looked like she was very clear with what she was doing,” Jim said.

Jane, an amateur photographer, snapped photos of the rescue.

“He was more scared of me than the surf,” Rainbow recounted. “I made myself the biggest fear.”

As Rainbow rushed through the water close behind the animal, the boar swam to the rocks on the shoreline. Jim, Jane, and Carvalho greeted Rainbow and the boar with applause as they reached dry land, after which the animal promptly scurried into the brush.

“Without a word of thanks,” Jim joked.

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Rainbow said this was not the first animal she’s saved, reporting rescues of turtles, a dolphin, and a shark from nets and fishing lines in the past.

“I would save anything. With animals, I have no fear,” Rainbow said. “I felt good after. It’s always good to save a life.”