Boat Smart: Recent mishaps offer life-saving advice
Sat, Jul 5, 2008 
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BY TOM RAU
Coast Guard Senior Chief (ret)
The foremost life-saving advice I can offer water goers is when you let down your guard around water, that's when you should be foremost on guard.
This holds true regardless of one's level of experience. A recent drowning involving a 52-year-old female kayaker in Lake Michigan drives home the point.
On June 4, a solo kayaker set out into Lake Michigan near Lake Bluff, which is located just north of Chicago. The experienced kayaker left around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. Hours later, when she failed to arrive home, family members notified authorities. The Coast Guard dispatched two boats and a helicopter. At 5:30 Thursday morning, they found her body and a life jacket floating nearby. Her kayak was located about a mile away.
Reportedly, she was an avid kayaker who frequently kayaked on Lake Michigan. Dan Ponce, a reporter for ABC7 Chicago reported that she was a breast cancer survivor who retired from the Army 10 years ago.
"There were many opportunities for her to stop the error chain," said Commander Tracy Wannamaker, Sector Lake Michigan. "Proper clothing for the weather and water temperature, a radio, wearing a life jacket, leaving a float plan with loved ones, and checking the weather forecast before departing."
The forecast that day called for thunderstorms and increased winds; the water temperature was a very chilly 52 degrees. Why she was not wearing a life jacket under those conditions underscores the deadly effect of letting down one's guard around water.
It's not just boaters that let down their guard. During the Fourth of July, 2003, on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan near St. Joseph, seven beach goers drowned. Between 2003 and 2008, I know of 46 drownings between Chicago and Manistee. Sand bars and prevailing westerly winds drive waves onto shore, creating a wave backlash that often cause rip currents that can carry swimmers off sandbars into deep water.
These mishaps can also occur unexpectedly off breakwaters and piers, as illustrated in a recent near-drowning on June 13th.
Coast Guard Station St. Joseph received a call from a boater reporting a person struggling in the water at the end of the St. Joe pier head. The station launched a 25-foot rescue boat and within seven minutes of the initial call arrived on scene.
According to Coast Guardsman Clay Reagan, coxswain aboard the 25-foot rescue boat, the man in the water was having a difficult time holding onto the ladder at the end of the pier. "He had a fishing stringer line wrapped around his wrist that barely kept him above the surface," said Reagan.
Four-foot waves were crashing against the pier, and according to Reagan if not for that stringer line he may well have drowned; he was too exhausted to climb up the ladder.
The fisherman, who did not speak English, later told Coast Guardsman Michael Torres, who is bilingual, that while moving between fishing spots he slipped and went over.
During the upcoming summer weekends, scores around the Great Lakes will flock to beaches, breakwaters, and piers and boaters to open waters, lakes, and bays, especially during major marine events like fireworks. The confined areas, including those near shore, can become congested with boats. The Coast Guard and other marine officials urge boaters to display proper navigation lights and carry extra bulbs. Marine law enforcement officers will order boaters that fail to display proper navigation lights back to their moorings.
This is not a negotiable item and with good reason: An unlighted boat is defenseless in dark, congested waters. For that reason, boaters operating in congested waters must maintain a lookout for lightless water craft and lighted craft as well.
On May 30 at 11:25 p.m., three boaters aboard a 26-foot Sea Ray, had to jump into the Salt River, located near Lake St. Clair when a 35-foot Four Winds slammed into the smaller powerboat. The operator of the larger powerboat failed to see the small boat even though it was displaying navigation lights. Officials cited the operator for reckless operation. Alcohol was not involved.
Unfortunately, too often, alcohol is involved in boating accidents. According to the latest Coast Guard figures, nearly 20 percent of all reported boating fatalities involve alcohol. This is another area where marine law enforcement officials will not budge an inch.
In Grand Haven, the Ottawa County Marine Division along with the Coast Guard work together on operation BAT. The acronym stands for Breath Analysis Testing, which involves a mobile trailer called the BAT.
When marine law enforcement officers determine a boater to be intoxicated with a blood alcohol count of .10 or higher, they transport the operator to shore, where BAT law enforcement personnel process the operator. This efficient teamwork allows marine units to quickly resume their patrols. When the BAT wagon fills up, offenders are carted off to jail. Not a pleasant way for a boater's day to end, getting a mug shot, being finger printed and spending a night in jail.
The Coast Guard recently spent a night of its own needlessly searching for an overdue sailboat that failed to arrive at its intended destination on Lake Superior. It was another case of loved ones not being notified of a change in plans.
A Coast Guard helicopter from Traverse City, along with other U.S. and Canadian Coast Guard assets, searched over 2000 square miles. The sailboat was located near the Apostle Islands.
"We spent over seven hours on the mission, including two refuelings. After the mission we had to stand down the aircrew for 12 hours due to fatigue standards," said pilot Lieutenant Jerome Loeb.
The Coast Guard urges boaters to keep loved ones advised of their whereabouts in case they do not arrive in port as scheduled. Another's loved one could be in dire need of assistance and go without while searchers look for an unwarranted overdue. All this can be avoided by a simple call.
Boat Smart — make that call.
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Tom Rau is a retired Coast Guard Senior Chief, boating safety columnist, and author of Boat Smart Chronicles, Lake Michigan Devours Its Wounded.
