A Boater’s Cautionary Tale

By Randy Fletcher, 1000 Islands Chapter

Photo credit: Larry Assam Photography

It was a beautiful day, warm, windy, and a great day for boating.

Heidi and I decided to take Serenity out for a shake down cruise after lunch. We launched in late April, but the rain and cold temps had kept us from going out. We headed around Picton Island, and as I was going to go through the Narrows, Heidi said “I thought you wanted to go for a ride, let’s go around Wellsley.”

So, we went by Canoe Point then proceeded to stay somewhat close to the border. As we were coming up on Wellsley Island Park/Swim area, Heidi said “Kayaker ahead.” What she saw was about a mile ahead of us. I noticed it wasn’t a kayak but a small inflatable row boat. No one was in the boat but two people were in the water. Two other boats went right by them and didn’t pay attention.

We came up to the two girls in the water and asked if they were ok. They couldn’t answer, but finally they said they needed a tow to their camp. We said “we are going to get you into the boat.”

We put the ladder out and they had a hard time getting to the ladder even with the rope in their hands. We got them on board, gave them towels, and got them back to their camp, about two miles away. Though they had life vests on, we believe that if we hadn’t been paying attention, the outcome would not have been good. They told us the wind and current was too strong for them to get back to camp so they were going to try to swim in with the raft. The girls hadn’t realized the winds and current were so strong and the water was still very cold.

When water is cold, you can’t survive very long. They were fortunate enough to have their life vests on and that we came along. This is a cautionary tale that when you are on the water, if you see something that doesn’t look right, check it out. We are sure glad that we did.