I can remember one of my earliest boating trips as a youth. The fog came on thick and I had to pick my way home through shallows. I managed OK, using a compass and the flasher-type Ray Jefferson depth sounder (that should date the event for some of you), but as soon as I saw that green 17 can materialize out of the mist, my stress level dropped tremendously.

Today, despite owning a boat equipped with every modern bit of navigation electronics, times two, I still appreciate the sight and sound of a navaid.

The question being posed by the United States Coast Guard is whether I still need that navaid, or Aid To Navigation (ATON) as buoys and markers are officially known, or can marine electronics substitute for them? If I am running toward a waypoint, does it need to be a physical object on the ocean’s surface?

The Coast Guard has proposed to remove hundreds of navigation aids from District 1, which is the Northeast Atlantic Coast from New York to Maine.

District 1 just happens to be the most rock-bound of all the Coast Guard Districts.

A private firm, Great Harbor Digital, created an interactive map of the ATONs being considered for removal. We have not verified each one, but have spot-checked this map and it appears accurate.

In the Local Notices To Mariners of April 15   (LNM District 1; Week 16) the Coast Guard listed the locations of buoys that would be discontinued.

The buoys targeted for removal mark harbor entrances, ledges, and other routes and hazards. Some are lighted, while others have gongs, bells or whistles, according to detailed descriptions in the notice.

According to the Coast Guard, most, if not all of these ATONs would be removed to modernize a constellation of navigation aids “whose designs mostly predate global navigation satellite systems, electronic navigation charts, and electronic charting systems.”

The intention, the Coast Guard says, is to “support the navigational needs of the 21st century prudent mariner … Deliver effective, economical service — manage vessel transit risk to acceptable levels at acceptable cost.”

This will “support and complement modern mariners, today’s much larger ships, ECS [Electronic Charting Systems] availability and requirements, and powerful smartphone navigation subscription apps affordably accessible to virtually all waterway users.”

I am of two minds on this topic. On the one hand, I feel nostalgia, resistance to change, and possess good memories of navaids helping me find my way on the water.

Read Next: Marine Electronics That Make Boating Safer

Against this, I have my own experience running boats all over North America, and beyond, and can say that GPS is almost always working. It doesn’t always work, but, then, it’s not uncommon for buoys to be missing, off-station, or have their lights out.

I do not recall the last time I experienced a complete failure of all the electronics, built-in, and the portable backups.

My mind also dwells on the reasoning for this, which is to cut costs. Commercial shipping, with its electronic charting ( ECDIS) and backups upon backups, will probably miss physical ATONS less than recreational boaters. What do the rest of US taxpayers think about paying for buoys for boaters?

What do you think?

The Coast Guard is accepting public comment until June 13.

The post Coast Guard May Remove Buoys appeared first on Boating Mag.

While Coast Guard air crews often grab headlines, sometimes flying hundreds of miles offshore into unimaginable conditions to save mariners in peril, boaters in trouble closer to the coast are more likely to have a Coast Guard vessel come alongside. That’s true even in extremely gnarly conditions. Crews aboard the 47-foot Motor Lifeboat, the Coast Guard’s primary nearshore fast-response rescue platform, will head into 50-knot winds through 30-foot seas and traverse inlets with 20-foot breaking surf.

These venerable boats first went into service in the late 1990s, replacing the 44 MLB. As they exceed their anticipated service life, the Coast Guard has turned to Birdon, a global maritime and defense contractor, to complete a fleetwide $191 million Service Life Extension Program. Boating went behind the scenes to see firsthand how these revitalized vessels give their Coast Guard crews improved tools for saving lives.

Rescue Machines

“When you’re inbound with a boat in tow, against an ebb current, in 24-foot seas, it shows that these boats are highly capable of their mission,” says Chief Petty Officer Matthew Whitlow, who has served aboard a 47 Motor Lifeboat since 2014. That includes four years in the notorious Columbia River entrance as an instructor at National Motor Lifeboat School at Cape Disappointment, Washington. “I’ve never doubted that this boat would take care of us.”

What gives him that confidence? The 47 MLB is designed to capsize on its side or pitchpole end-over-end, even rolling all the way through 360 degrees, then return upright within 12 seconds and continue on its mission. I’ve quipped, in particularly rough seas, about being in Mother Ocean’s washing machine, but these men and women are ready, able and fully equipped for spin cycle.

Once on-scene, Coast Guard crews deploy dewatering pumps, damage control kits and firefighting capabilities. Often, just towing a disabled boat stabilizes or remedies perilous situations. The 47 MLB can stay offshore for many hours, follow stricken vessels back to port, and carry as many as 34 survivors and crew—all far surpassing rescue-­helicopter ­limits.

Project Scope

At Birdon’s Portland, Connecticut, facility, six indoor service bays accommodate technicians installing new diesels, upgrading electronics, reconfiguring the open bridge and engine room, and welding in entire sections of aluminum. In other buildings, additional boats are disassembled and media-blasted inside and out to bare aluminum. Since the project began in 2019, the company has completed 27 boats. Two facilities, in Connecticut and also Bellingham, Washington, will refit about 20 boats in 2025, and Birdon is on track and within budget toward a final fleet of 107 refit 47 MLBs by 2029. (Another 10 boats in the Coast Guard’s current 117-boat fleet may be scrapped or refit in the end.)

What those metrics don’t reflect, though, is Birdon’s focus on the mission of these boats—protecting Coast Guard crews while rescuing boaters already in serious peril. That starts with ensuring rollover survivability even when two new Cummins diesel engines offer 880 pounds less ballast than the Detroit Diesels they replace. Steel ballast low in the engine room and forward compartment compensates for that change, and completed boats are weighed, both upright and inclined through 14 degrees in a hydraulic cradle, to verify their stability. Each of the 4,000 parts replaced, as well as the few dozen retained items, are all inspected at least three times: before, during and after installation. Sea trials by both Birdon and the Coast Guard replicate operating parameters right down to crew weight simulated with water tanks belted into the seats.

Engines and Performance

While Cummins’ 530 hp QSC 8.3-liter diesels are 20 percent lighter and make 20 percent more horsepower than the original 435 hp Detroit Diesel 6V92 engines, the added weight of sound-mitigating and climate-stabilizing insulation, a reconfigured bridge, and the ballast needed for this boat’s unique seaworthiness net only about 2 knots faster speed overall. Fuel burned at the end of a typical day is about the same with the new engines as with the old motors.

Those Detroit Diesels are older than many of the Coast Guard ­engineers working on them, and it shows. “When we go out and the boat isn’t making full power [with Detroit Diesels], we have to check fuel pressure, look for air restrictions, check the valve clearances, maybe replace fuel injectors, or remove and clean the aftercooler,” says Chief Petty Officer Lantz Fortner, who has been an engineer aboard 47 MLBs since 2014. “The Cummins engines have a lot less unscheduled downtime and a lot less troubleshooting.”

While the new Cummins are ­off-the-shelf, the controls aren’t. Cummins partnered with Glendinning Products, a leader in marine engine controls for five decades, to ensure that shift and throttle controls are waterproof to International ­Electrotechnical Commission Standard IP67 (submerged 1 meter for 30 minutes). The incorporated ­Rollover ­Controller returns engines to ­neutral and idle if the boat rolls past 110 degrees. Programming ensures that the diesels won’t stall when shifting between hard ahead and hard astern in dangerous surf.

Other Improvements

With more than 100 boats pounding through rough water for ­longer than a quarter-century, metal fatigue is an issue. Aluminum sections identified as trouble spots are replaced fleetwide, and individual boats are inspected and flagged for additional repairs. Operation was streamlined based on 25 years of experience too. “The basics of the boat were sound, but they’ve updated little things that make our day-to-day operation easier,” Whitlow says. “Something as simple as our tow reel—now it’s easier to use and requires less maintenance.”

“The LED lighting in the ­cabin is much brighter. It’s safer for people moving around,” Fortner adds. “In the engine room, you can see hazards more clearly.” New, bright LED floodlights now illuminate all around the boat, versus holding a searchlight on a specific spot. Other changes decrease maintenance time. When high-impact-plastic fender ­collars crack on older boats, ­aluminum studs are cut off and new fenders welded in place. Birdon, instead, reengineered detachable brackets. “The fact that we don’t have to weld those studs onto the hull is a huge advantage,” Fortner says, because it required disconnecting electronic engine controls and isolating battery chargers to preclude damage from electrical ­current used while arc-welding on aluminum hulls.

Crew Comfort

“The human performance people got involved, so we’re less susceptible to chronic fatigue,” Fortner says, which can be significant while spending long hours in rough seas. The reconfigured open bridge, for example, improves both operation and comfort. Previously, two Stidd chairs and two folding jump seats accommodated the boat’s typical crew. Now three Shoxs impact-absorbing seats across the front keep most eyes looking ahead and to the sides, while the port aft Shoxs seat swivels for someone scanning astern or watching a tow. Sound and ­vibration are also mitigated with new, quieter diesels, along with ­sound-dampening insulation and specialized deck systems.

There have been tweaks made during the project too. Initially, the starboard flying bridge control station had the steering jog-lever on the right and throttles on the left, while other helm stations positioned throttles on the right and jog-lever on the left. Those starboard station controls are now switched—a small detail that becomes critical when taking quick action in 20-foot breaking surf. 

Read Next: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of US Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers

Electronics

While most of each boat’s radio equipment carries over through the refit, Birdon is installing the Coast Guard’s new Scalable Integrated Navigation System from Raymarine as well. The entire fleet, including some 47 MLBs not yet incorporated into Birdon’s refit schedule, will upgrade their electronics by 2026 for either primary navigation aboard small boats or redundancy on ships.

On older 47 MLBs, navigation and radar equipment might be noticeably different when crews switch between boats. Now operation, training, troubleshooting and spare parts will all become standard across the entire fleet. Future upgrades, such as adding FLIR cameras, which are not currently installed on 47 MLBs, can network with existing equipment.

Increased integration is particularly helpful. “Now we see AIS contacts right on the radar and plotter screen. It gives a better snapshot of what’s around,” ­Whitlow says. AIS alerts are more configurable too, providing “an extra layer of safety.” 

Raymarine also added encrypted AIS messaging into the entire Coast Guard system. Radar and AIS targets are easily shared from one boat and dropped right onto another boat’s chart-plotter screen, or broadcast fleetwide. Search Action Plans or EPIRB coordinates relayed from shore can be uploaded directly onto navigation displays rather than manually entered aboard each boat, and shoreside command can monitor individual vessels in real time. Data sharing between Coast Guard and law-enforcement vessels utilizing Raymarine ­equipment facilitates interagency cooperation as well.

Why do Coast Guard men and women head offshore in small boats in weather that keeps others tied to the dock? “My pay is the reward I feel for serving the ­community, and the pride after a rescue, in knowing those people and your crew are safe,” Fortner says. “It’s just people ­helping people.” 

The newly renovated 47 MLB is an excellent tool to that end. “I trust the boat to do what it is supposed to do,” he adds. “The lights stay burning, the shafts keep ­turning, and the boat stays upright to get us home safely.”

Specs (from USCG 47 MLB Operator’s Manual)

Previous Power

• Twin Detroit Diesel electronically controlled 6V92TA 435 bhp at 2,100 rpm
• Transmission: Reintjes WVS 234 UP, 2:1 reduction
• Props: 4-blade, 28″ diameter x 36″ pitch

New Power

• Cummins QSC8.3 530 bhp at 2,800 rpm
• Transmission: ZF 2:1 reduction
• Props: ­ 4-blade, 27″ diameter x 27.75″ pitch

The post Refitting Coast Guard Motor Lifeboats to Continue Saving Lives appeared first on Boating Mag.

The title of my article makes a bold statement. I’m basing it on the US Coast Guard requirements for establishing what’s called a Surf Station. Surf Stations are required at locations where surf runs 8 feet or higher for more than 10 percent—that’s 36 days—of the year.

That’s a real 8 feet measured by wave gauges and with lidar, not the 4-foot waves that some social-media sailors might call 8-footers. While the size of waves alone is not always the sole criteria for rough or dangerous seas, I think that prevalent 8-foot breaking waves qualifies.

The signature boat at a Surf Station is the 47 Motor Lifeboat (MLB), which can right itself from a capsize or pitchpole. You can read more about the 47 MLB on page 80 of this issue. Briefly, this boat is rated to operate in 30-foot seas or 20-foot surf in 50-knot winds.

Perhaps more important, Surf Station personnel, or Surfmen, are rated to operate the 47-foot MLB in its most extreme operating conditions after undergoing training at the National Motor Lifeboat School near the mouth of the Columbia River at Cape Disappointment, Washington.  Surfmen is the highest qualification in the Coast Guard for small-boat operations. There are currently about 200 Surfmen in the Coast Guard, and only about 500 have ever earned the designation.

Read Next: Running Breaking Inlets

Most Surf Stations are on the Pacific Coast. But a number of Surf Stations also exist on the Atlantic Coast. What follows lists the most dangerous inlets in the US, clockwise, from northeast to northwest. If you will be navigating these or any coastal inlet, time your transit for incoming water and/or times when wind is not opposing the current, and get local knowledge.

U.S.C.G. Surf Stations

With breaking surf over 8 feet in height, occurring for at least 36 days per year, these locations are served by special boats and people:

• Barnegat Inlet, New Jersey
• Oregon Inlet, North Carolina
• Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina
• Morro Bay, California
• Golden Gate, California
• Bodega Bay, California
• Noyo River, California
• Humboldt Bay, California
• Chetco River, Oregon
• Coos Bay, Oregon
• Umpqua River, Oregon
• Siuslaw River, Oregon
• Yaquina Bay, Oregon
• Depoe Bay, Oregon
• Tillamook Bay, Oregon
• Cape Disappointment, Washington
• Grays Harbor, Washington
• Quillayute River, Washington

The post Most Dangerous Inlets in the United States for Boaters appeared first on Boating Mag.

After months of extensive preparations, my friend Coy and I headed for the Bahamas from Brunswick, Georgia, on Makana, his 32-footer.

Prior to leaving for the Bahamas, we learned that the -autopilot on Makana was not functioning, so Coy had a marine-electronics technician come to repair it and conduct a test trip. It was now running great. Having cruised extensively, we knew the value of an autopilot for fuel and time savings and for reducing stress on the skipper.

We set off, heading under the Sidney Lanier Bridge before allowing the autopilot to take control. Within seconds, Makana veered sharp to starboard and started swerving erratically. I immediately disengaged the autopilot and took control of the steering.

Read Next: Compounding Mistakes Make for a Dangerous Situation

Coy was not happy and was talking about returning to the dock. The autopilot had functioned flawlessly just a few days prior. Why was it suddenly acting like this?

I had experienced a similar event before on a boat that had its fluxgate compass and controls in one unit. It worked great in stand-by, but if I hit the engage button, it would turn us hard starboard. I figured out that the external fixator on my wrist (used to repair a fracture I had sustained) was causing the problem, so I thought maybe we had a fluxgate-compass problem with Makana.

After a thorough search in the aft cabin, I located the fluxgate compass situated at the bottom of the aft hanging locker, next to a No. 10 tin can (110 ounces) of peanuts. We quickly relocated the peanuts, and the autopilot operated flawlessly for the remainder of the voyage. Sometimes the solution to a boat problem can be quite simple, and this, thankfully, was one of those cases.

Charles Wilsdorf
Brunswick, Georgia

[The key safety takeaway here is that Mr. Wilsdorf remained at the helm, despite using an autopilot. Had he left the helm, the boat may have struck something or a sudden turn may have thrown someone overboard. Always keep a helm watch when using autopilot. —Ed.]

Wanted: Your Stories
Share your boating mistakes and mishaps so that your fellow boaters might learn from your experience. Send us your first-person accounts, including what went wrong, what you’d do differently, your name and your city, to editor@boatingmag.com and use “ILAB” in the subject line. If your story is selected for publication, we’ll send you a $100 West Marine Gift Card!”

The post Troubleshooting Autopilot Interference appeared first on Boating Mag.

After a close call in the frigid waters of Minnesota’s Lake Minnetonka, Jack Doty is urging fellow boaters to avoid the mistakes that nearly cost him his life. This month the lifelong boater shared his cautionary tale on The Qualified Captain podcast.

Doty was ejected from his boat into the 39-degree waters of Lake Minnetonka, just two weeks after ice-out in April 2022. Even before he hit the water, Doty realized he was in a race against time.

“As I was flying out, I knew I was in serious trouble,” he said. “I’m like, this is how you die.”

His next thought was escaping the Whaler’s spinning prop. “I knew I had to get away from that boat,” said Doty, who estimates the prop passed within about four feet of him. “I took the full wake of that motor in my face.”

As a boater, Doty is as safety conscious as they come. In fact, he went out that day to acquaint himself with his boat’s systems, and check for buoys that may have moved when the ice left the lake. He always wears his life jacket and normally makes a point to attach his engine cut-off lanyard. This day, however, he was distracted with the electronics on his new Boston Whaler Dauntless 210, and skipped that simple step.

The forecast called for high winds later that day, but the storm came early, packing winds in excess of 40-mile-per-hour. Doty was making a long sweeping turn when he hit a wave and went overboard. Even at about half-throttle, the ejection was incredibly violent. Doty’s right hip struck the rail so hard it tore his gluteus muscle. “I actually bent the stainless-steel side rail and ripped the screws out of the gelcoat,” he said. “I’ll give you 30 minutes with a sledgehammer. You won’t do that.”

As he left the boat, some part of Doty’s body pushed the throttle wide open, and the torque of the Verado 200 outboard pushed the helm hard over. The Whaler went into a tight spin and looped back toward him. Doty managed to swim clear of the circling boat, then pulled the handle to inflate his life jacket. He was momentarily safe from drowning, but his ordeal had only begun.

Doty watched in dismay as the few boats on the water that day high-tailed it for home without even slowing to investigate the Whaler spinning circles in the middle of the lake. He realized it was up to him to save himself.

The closest land was Big Island a few hundred yards to the west. But with the wind whistling out of the south there was little chance he could get there, let alone find help on the sparsely populated island. Instead he decided to swim with the wind at his back, aiming for the lake’s north shore a mile or more distant.

As he swam, he told himself over and over again, just keep working. “One of the nurses at the hospital was like, ‘That must have been so frightening,’” Doty said. “But it wasn’t scary at all. It was just very real – you’re either doing this or you’re not.” For nearly an hour in 39-degree water, Doty kept swimming.

Towards the end, his thoughts turned to his wife and two young children. “The world’s going dark. I am tired. I’m cold,” he told Stasiak on the podcast. “I’m like, I just can’t disappear. That’s all I was thinking at that point.”

With only his head and arms showing among the whitecaps, Doty should have been invisible to anyone on shore. But a man in a lakeside home went to wash his hands in his kitchen sink, and spotted Doty’s Whaler turning circles far out on the lake. It was the first in a remarkable chain of coincidences Doty described on the podcast.

“Thirteen years ago, he’s diagnosed with Stage 4B bone marrow cancer, and lives. And lives!” Doty said. “And, he used to work on yachts as a deckhand and was actually trained in how to scan water for objects. So what are the odds?”

The man called 911, and the Hennepin County Sherriff’s Office Water Patrol Unit went to investigate. Deputy Nathan Briguet remembers the scene when he and two volunteer deputies reached the Whaler. “There was nobody on board, so we began canvassing the area,” he said.

“We weren’t finding anyone.” After about 10 minutes, Briguet received a call from his dispatcher. The man on the hill had spotted what looked like a person in the water some 400 yards east of the patrol boat. Briguet turned the boat in that direction and caught a glimpse of Doty in the distance.

“I don’t know how I saw it but all I could see was just a hand wave over the horizon,” he recalled. “Sure enough, there he was in the water.”

The deputies got Doty out of the water and rushed him to the hospital, where doctors were astounded he had survived so long in the frigid water. “Every one of them said, how are you here?” Doty said.

To Briguet, the answer is simple. “He was wearing a life jacket when he fell out of the watercraft, and that 100 percent saved his life,” the deputy said.

Since the accident Doty has become an advocate for boating safety, and specifically engine cut off switches – both the traditional lanyards and electronic versions that can be worn like a wristwatch or clipped to clothing or a life jacket.

“If I had my lanyard on,” he said, “I would be beat up, cold, wet and maybe embarrassed, but the boat would have stopped. I could have swum back to it and climbed aboard.”Watch the full episode on The Qualified Captain Podcast.

The post Boater Recounts High-Speed Ejection and Epic Survival Swim appeared first on Boating Mag.

Semper Paratus—Always  Ready: That motto of the US Coast Guard prepares its helicopter air crews to fly into merciless winds, blinding snow, impenetrable fog and sheeting rain—weather most aircraft avoid by necessity—whenever boaters and commercial mariners need help farther away and faster than Coast Guard vessels can provide. At the end of that helicopter lifeline, rescue swimmers lower to the deck or leap into the ocean to help resolve what is surely the lowest point of someone’s worst day on the water.

This October marks 40 years since the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 1984 established the rescue swimmer program. These incredibly brave men and women, officially known as Aviation Survival Technicians, are not satisfied with success either. Helicopter rescue capabilities expand each time a previously unimaginable scenario shows where improved equipment or training could make their mission better, safer, or broader ranging. I spoke with three rescue swimmers, whose collective Coast Guard careers span the program’s full 40 years, to understand these extraordinary ­capabilities. Like them, let’s jump right in.

Early Days

In the earliest days of helicopter rescue, Coast Guard crews stayed in their aircraft and lowered rescue baskets for victims to assist themselves. A few trained and equipped themselves to go into the water modeled on US Navy, Air Force and Canadian ­rescuers who retrieved downed ­military pilots, but neither money nor resources came from Coast Guard headquarters to take those ­programs nationwide.

But then in winter 1982, an Air Florida 737 crashed into the icy Potomac River; a year later, the 605-foot bulk carrier Marine Electric sank 30 miles off the Virginia coast. Many of the 105 who died simply couldn’t rescue themselves in the near-freezing water. The Coast Guard was quick to act, utilizing the Navy’s helicopter rescue training program to field five Coast Guard rescue swimmers in fall 1984: Steve Ober, Kelly Gordon, Rick Woolford, Matt Fithian and Butch Flythe.

“When I joined the Coast Guard in 1984, there wasn’t a rescue swimmer program. We were there to maintain the safety equipment,” says Tom Dardis, who now works as a civilian heading the Coast Guard’s ­recreational-boating safety outreach program. In November 1986, fresh from swimmer school, Dardis was among the first group of Coast Guard rescue swimmers assigned to Sitka, Alaska. Their initial training focused on physical and mental endurance, but the US Navy program taught them to rescue trained pilots, not scared boaters. In Alaska, Dardis says, “we were figuring things out more by trial and error than from a master plan.”

Pilots also didn’t want to risk their own crewmen. “In those days, they would put us on a fishing vessel rolling in 30-foot seas for a medevac, or drop us ashore to find a lost hiker,” he says. “They just didn’t want to put us in the water.”

Making the Leap

Jeff Tunks, another rescue swimmer, was on duty the night of December 10, 1987, when a mayday call came that challenged those attitudes. As the Coast Guard’s H-3 Pelican helicopter flew across Sitka Sound and into the not-forecast, rapidly intensifying storm, seas built to 40 feet and winds topped 70 knots. As they arrived on scene, the 26-foot salmon fishing ­vessel Bluebird, holed by rocks and foundering, cast a father and his 6-year-old son into the frigid water. Blinding snow and vicious gusts left the pilot, John Whiddon, unable to dodge the savagely swaying mast to reach them with the rescue basket. In the minutes it took for the boat to fully sink out of the way, the father, whose survival suit had leaked, was too hypothermic to help himself or his son. 

In that moment, Tunks ­became the first rescue swimmer deployed into the water in anything close to those conditions. Father and son were saved two weeks before Christmas. The aircraft was out of commission for a week to repair its overstressed transmission and damaged airframe. All four airmen, including co-pilot Greg Breithaupt and flight mechanic Carl Saylor, earned the Coast Guard’s Distinguished Flying Cross. And rescue swimmers proved their worth.

Pilots, over time, gained trust in swimmers’ abilities through routine training in marginal but safe conditions, as well as rescues in worse. Then, in mid-March 1993, a southerly dip in the jet stream injected moist tropical air into an already powerful winter storm. The resulting “Storm of the Century” blasted the entire East Coast with hurricane ferocity. The Coast Guard saved more than 100 lives then, many in conditions rivaling Tunks’ Bluebird rescue.

Three weeks later, two brothers were hiking along the water on Oregon’s rugged coast. Rising tides and heavy surf swept them off the rocks and into the enormous cavern carved into Cape Lookout’s cliffs. Rescue swimmer Triston Heaton followed. 

“A rescue swimmer had never done that before,” says Eric Biehn, who began as a rescue swimmer himself in 1999 and now ensures that all rescue swimmers have the equipment, training and resources they need for their mission. “Triston Heaton didn’t know about cave ­hydraulics and the ways that waves and tide affected them, or the dangers of deadheads and debris. Once he was in the back of the cave, he experienced all of that, and he almost died.” 

To reach Heaton and the ­brothers trapped by the sea, pilot Ed ­Gibbons and co-pilot Blake Burris flew their H-3 Pelican, with a ­62-foot rotor span, into the 200-foot-wide enclosed cave. Flight mechanic Craig Wyatt used breaking waves to float the rescue basket farther in, and the helicopter dragged Heaton and one of the men out through the breaking surf.

School’s In

Recognizing the need to train for such difficult cases, the Coast Guard launched Advanced Rescue Swimmer School in Astoria, Oregon, in 1996. “Now we experience swimming into a cave and back out, both tethered to the helicopter and untethered, so we know how and when we can do it safely,” Biehn says. 

They spider-crawl across cliffs to rescue fallen hikers, suspended by their helicopter’s stainless-steel cable like a web. Hurricanes Katrina and Harvey augmented urban rescue training. And of course, they train extensively in the notoriously frigid, rough waters off Oregon’s coast. In 2007, the renamed Advanced ­Helicopter Rescue School ­expanded its ­curriculum to incorporate training specific to pilots and flight mechanics. Navy and Air Force rescuers now utilize Coast Guard AHRS too, coming full circle since the early days when Coast Guard swimmers ­attended Navy training.

Justin Gieringer has been to AHRS three times so far over his 14-year career; rescue swimmers attend at least once every five years. Training in those conditions hones skills such as deploying a rescue basket buffeted by breaking waves. “At the beginning of the first day [of training in big seas], all the hoists take forever, but by the end of the day, everything goes just like when we’re in flat water,”  Gieringer explains.

Read Next: US Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin Helicopters

Teamwork benefits most. “There is a moment right before my feet hit the deck where I have no control but I’m most vulnerable. It’s like jumping off a building without knowing where the ground is,” Gieringer says. “I’m giving my hand signal nice and slow, and the flight mechanic is letting out the cable slowly, and then he drops it as fast as he can just as my tippy-toes hit the deck.” Practicing that moment in challenging conditions makes it smooth. Keeping hoist cables slack but not loose in big waves or strong winds is another learned skill, as is reading and reacting as a team to the constant updrafts and downdrafts that pilots experience when ­hovering near cliffs and tall buildings. “The cliff and heavy-surf training are awesome, but the cold-water training is so important to suffer through,” Gieringer says of 40-degree seawater during AHRS, which new rescue swimmers stationed in warmer climates haven’t yet experienced. “Doing all these things with the added stress of cold water, especially when a helicopter comes over with that rotor wash, is ­eye-opening.”

Rescue swimmers also train to the level of EMTs. Gieringer put those skills to an extreme test in November 2022 when three US Border Patrol agents were each shot multiple times during a drug interdiction 20 miles south of the Puerto Rican coast. Gieringer and another rescue swimmer, Dan Wilson, were fortunately already aboard a helicopter preparing to lift off for a scheduled training flight. “We were on scene in maybe 10 minutes,” he says. Two agents were still conscious but critical. “Dan hoisted them and took off straight to the trauma center in San Juan.” With a second helicopter just minutes out, Gieringer tended to the third agent, who had been shot in the chest, neck and forehead, but he still had a pulse and was clinging to life. “I’m packing the wounds, applying an Israeli bandage (tourniquet), and he’s still bleeding out,” he says. The third agent was ­already secured into the ­litter when the second helicopter arrived. To save critical minutes and continue resuscitation all the way to the helicopter, Gieringer rode up alongside his victim rather than in a separate hoist—a technique he recently acquired in ­advanced training—and then he and fellow swimmer Casey Hanchette performed CPR for the 20-minute flight to ­Mayagüez.

The good guys don’t always win. Gieringer couldn’t save that most critically wounded Border Patrol officer. Two brothers were swept into that Cape Lookout cave, but Heaton never found the second. And 38 Coast Guard ­aviators have lost their lives in the line of duty since 1984.

“We train hard ‘so others may live’—that’s our motto,” Biehn says. “To get through the ­training, and during all that dedicated suffering, we always have in the back of our minds, we are doing this for a purpose, and that purpose is to save lives.”

Rescue swimmers are not held up as heroes within the Coast Guard but rather are considered an integral part of the rescue team. “We’ve had two or three generations to figure this out,” Dardis says. “With any training—military, police, fire—we should all act the same because of that training. Given a scenario, nine out of 10 rescue swimmers would react the same way.”

In other words, every pilot, every flight mechanic and every rescue swimmer, each time they climb into that helicopter, is a trained hero. Some just haven’t had the chance to show it yet.

The post Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of US Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers appeared first on Boating Mag.

Three years ago, kayaker David Schink was swept into the Gulf of Mexico, never to be seen again.

“He didn’t say goodbye. He said, ‘See you later—we’ll go for a walk when I get back,’” recalls his wife, Judy Schink.

In the aftermath of David’s disappearance, Judy and their three grown sons struggled to make sense of the tragedy. If searchers had mobilized sooner, they thought, perhaps David would have been found in time.

The family funneled their grief into action, working tirelessly to create the Aqua Alert program, a maritime version of the popular Amber Alert system. Florida’s Okaloosa County and the city of Destin launched the pilot program in 2022. Months later, the very first Aqua Alert led to the rescue of a grandmother and granddaughter on the same stretch of coast where David was lost.

DeNell Hendricks was visiting Destin with her granddaughters Andie, 14, and Brooklyn, 19, in August 2023. They rented a pair of personal watercraft and traveled through the East Pass into the Gulf of Mexico, with DeNell and Andie on one PWC and Brooklyn on the other. A short distance offshore, a large wave knocked DeNell and Andie off their PWC. 

DeNell was separated from the PWC and was immediately caught in an outgoing riptide. Meanwhile, Brooklyn tried to help Andie climb aboard her PWC. When that was unsuccessful, Brooklyn told her younger sister to hold on to the other PWC and don’t let go, no matter what. Then she went for help.

Brooklyn rode straight back to the rental dock, and within minutes, employees were on the water looking for Andie. When they couldn’t find her, they called 911, and dispatchers immediately issued an Aqua Alert—the first in the history of the program.

The alert squawked on cellphones belonging to boaters throughout the region, describing the missing people, a description of their PWCs, and their last known location. A dolphin tour boat responded, and in less than 30 minutes, Andie was safely aboard. DeNell, however, was nowhere to be found. 

In just a few minutes, the current had carried her hundreds of yards from the PWC. As boaters notified by the Aqua Alert and on VHF Channel 16 searched for her, the Florida Wildlife Commission launched a helicopter to join the hunt. Pilot Todd Tolbert flew a search pattern for nearly three hours before he spotted a glimmer on the water. It was the sun reflecting on DeNell’s watch as she waved at the chopper.

“The seas were pretty rough, there were a lot of whitecaps, so you think you see something, and then it’s just a whitecap of a wave,” Tolbert told WEAR 3 News in Pensacola. “When I saw her move her arm, I knew.”

DeNell was wearing a blue life jacket, which blended into the waters of the Gulf and made it hard for rescuers to spot her. Even after Tolbert vectored four rescue boats directly to DeNell’s location about 3 miles offshore, she was nearly invisible in the water. “The only thing I think we saw that day was her face,” FWC Officer Thomas Pritchard said.

Three-and-a-half hours after the rogue wave knocked DeNell into the water, rescuers pulled her aboard an FWC response boat and rushed her to shore. She was hypothermic and so exhausted from battling the waves that officers decided to airlift her to the hospital. A doctor later told her she would not have lasted another 30 minutes in the water. 

A great deal goes into a successful search-and-rescue operation. DeNell and her granddaughter Andie owe their lives to everyone who joined the search effort, including the US Coast Guard, Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Marine Unit, Florida Fish and Wildlife officers, and Screaming Eagles Dolphin Tours. All of them say that the Aqua Alert played a critical role in the successful rescue.

Last week, DeNell and Andie had the opportunity to thank Judy and her son Daniel Schink personally at the National Life Jacket Convention in Clearwater Beach, Florida. They spotted each other in the hotel and hugged for two solid minutes, Judy said.

“It’s instant family. I owe my life to them, because if it weren’t for them and their sacrifice, I wouldn’t be here,” DeNell said.

Aqua Alerts have now been issued three times, including one for former University of South Carolina quarterback Chris Smelley, who was rescued 12 miles off Grayton Beach, Florida, after high winds drove his fishing kayak into the Gulf.

Aqua Alert will soon go national, thanks to legislation that passed the US Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support. The Coast Guard will launch three new pilot programs in different areas of the country, starting in 2025. The Schinks are thrilled but don’t plan to rest until Aqua Alert is implemented everywhere. 

DeNell too is working to improve boating safety. Since her rescue, she has advocated for brightly colored life jackets in preference to muted colors that are harder to spot, such as the blue life jacket she was wearing that day. Ultimately, she wants to change life jacket requirements so that they’re offered only in bright colors and with reflective tape that improves nighttime visibility. It’s no easy task, but the Schinks have shown how it’s done in one word: perseverance.

Download the Aqua Alert app.

 The U.S. Coast Guard is asking all boat owners and operators to help reduce fatalities, injuries, property damage, and associated healthcare costs related to recreational boating accidents by taking personal responsibility for their own safety and the safety of their passengers. Essential steps include: wearing a life jacket at all times and requiring passengers to do the same; never boating under the influence (BUI); successfully completing a boating safety course; and getting a Vessel Safety Check (VSC) annually from local U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, United States Power Squadrons®, or your state boating agency’s Vessel Examiners. The U.S. Coast Guard reminds all boaters to “Boat Responsibly!” For more tips on boating safety, visit uscgboating.org.

The post After a Devastating Loss, One Family’s Resilience Leads to a Lifesaving Rescue appeared first on Boating Mag.

One of the most overlooked aspects of boating safety is local knowledge.

That goes for boaters and rescuers alike. Just ask Tony Polkoski and the Florida tow boat captain who saved his life, Carlos Galindo.

Carlos owns Islamorada TowBoatU.S. with his wife, Ilene Perez. He’s been helping mariners get out of trouble in the Florida Keys for nearly 30 years. Most of his calls are for accidental groundings or engine trouble, but occasionally he finds himself in a life-or-death situation.

Such was the case last March when Ilene monitored a mayday call on VHF Channel 16. While cutting through a zip tie to release his outriggers, Tony had severed the artery in his left wrist. He was bleeding uncontrollably, and now his wife Shawna was calling for help. The panic in her voice told Ilene all she needed to know. She told Carlos to go, and as a Coast Guard response boat roared toward the Humps, he was close behind.

Shawna didn’t know her precise coordinates, just that she and Tony had been fishing the Islamorada Humps, a patch of shallow waters and fishy rips about 14 miles southwest of Carlos’s home port of Snake Creek, Fla.

As Carlos ran full-throttle toward the Humps, he had time to filter what he had heard on the mayday call through his knowledge of the waters off Islamorada, and how boaters – especially inexperienced ones – react under stress.

“When you listen to the radio for so many years, you’re always trying to listen to what’s in the background,” Carlos says. “And this call here, I could hear the lady talking about the Humps, but I could also hear the engines running at high RPMs. That told me she’s not going to be at the Humps. No way.”

The next question was if Shawna and Tony were not at the Humps, where would they be? Carlos had a hunch about that too.

“When people around here don’t know where they’re going or how to run a boat, they usually go for the Alligator Reef Lighthouse,” he says. “That’s where they’re going to shoot for because you can see it from miles and miles away.”

If Shawna was running toward the light, her course would put her some distance south of the beeline that Carlos and the Coast Guard boat were making toward the Humps. So, like a free safety sniffing an interception, Carlos broke right. Then he came to a full stop and scanned the horizon.

He knew just what he was looking for, again thanks to his local knowledge. The Freedom Boat Club where Shawna and Tony had rented their boat is just across the marina from Carlos’s slip. The club only rents Cobias and sure enough, Carlos soon spotted what looked like a 24-Cobia maybe two miles away, steering erratically. He turned the wheel and hit the throttles.

“As I’m getting closer there’s nobody on the helm, nobody answering the radio. Nothing,” Carlos recalls. “And then I saw someone on the boat, holding another person and waving one hand.”

The first thing Carlos did when he arrived on the scene was radio the Coast Guard with the vessel’s precise coordinates. Then, with the cavalry on the way, he stepped onto a boat that looked like something out of a thrasher movie.

Here again a local connection proved critical. A few years ago one of the local firefighters gave Carlos a tourniquet. He put it in his first aid kit and didn’t give it another thought until he pulled up on the 24-Cobia and saw Tony with blood spurting from his arm “like a pipe broke or something.”

This, to put it mildly, was not Carlos’ cup of tea, Ilene says. “Fun fact, he has a phobia to blood.”

“I can’t stand the sight of it,” Carlos confirms, “but I had to save this guy’s life. I put the tourniquet on and kept turning it. I was hitting him, you know, ‘Wake up, wake up. Here comes the Coast Guard. Five more minutes.’”

Moments later Carlos looked over his shoulder and the Coast Guard was there. They transferred Tony to the response boat and roared off toward the hospital, leaving Carlos and a shell-shocked Shawna on the bloodied Cobia. That’s when Ilene took charge.

“I’m at home listening to the whole situation and I call Carlos. I’m like, ‘Where’s the wife?’ and he said she’s in the boat. I go, ‘Full of blood? I’m going to send out Nelson – our son who is also a tow boat captain – and you put her on your boat and get her back to land.”

By the time they got back to Snake Creek, Tony was at nearby Mariner’s Hospital, where he was stabilized and transferred to Miami for surgery. He made a complete recovery and later told reporter Kellie Butler Farrell of Keys Weekly just how close he’d come to dying that day.

“The doc said you have six units of blood in you and they had to put three back into me, so I lost half of my blood,” he told Farrell. “Ten more minutes and I wouldn’t be here.”

Carlos didn’t call the hospital to find out what happened to Tony. “I thought I’d never see the guy again. Another tow, another rescue. Then one day I got home and Ilene was like, ‘He’s coming by with his wife.’”

When the couples met, Tony and Carlos embraced. “He gave me a hug, and she did the same. And then he said ‘Thank you Carlos for saving my life.’ And I was like, you don’t have to thank me. I just did what I had to do.”

Carlos later received the Lifesaving Award from AFRAS, the Association For Rescue At Sea, and TowBoatU.S.’s highest honor, the Woody Pollak Award. Both citations credit Carlos’s instincts and local knowledge with saving Tony’s life.

Looking back on the rescue, Carlos has advice for anyone operating a boat offshore. Number one, no one should count on a cell phone to call for help. Having a VHF radio and knowing how to report your coordinates is critical. A properly registered EPIRB or Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) is also a good idea, Ilene adds.

It’s also important to be sure more than just one person knows how to operate the boat, navigate and deal with emergencies. When Tony sliced open his arm, it was up to Shawna to make the distress call, administer first aid and get the boat back to port. Though she hadn’t prepared for any of those things, she was able to maintain her composure and call for help. That, plus Carlos’s quick thinking, was just enough to save Tony’s life – a point he was sure to make when visiting Carlos and Ilene.

“He said, ‘I thank the Coast Guard, I thank Carlos, but I thank my wife over everything because without her I wouldn’t be alive,’” Ilene says.

The U.S. Coast Guard is asking all boat owners and operators to help reduce fatalities, injuries, property damage, and associated healthcare costs related to recreational boating accidents by taking personal responsibility for their own safety and the safety of their passengers. Essential steps include: wearing a life jacket at all times and requiring passengers to do the same; never boating under the influence (BUI); successfully completing a boating safety course; and getting a Vessel Safety Check (VSC) annually from local U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, United States Power Squadrons®, or your state boating agency’s Vessel Examiners. The U.S. Coast Guard reminds all boaters to “Boat Responsibly!” For more tips on boating safety, visit uscgboating.org.

The post Captain Trusts His Instincts in Long-Shot Rescue appeared first on Boating Mag.

Inflatable life jackets have crossed over from expensive professional gear to an affordable recreational necessity. With good reason. Not only are they cooler, lighter, and more comfortable to wear, but they are also easier to protect from deterioration and mildew and can stow in a far more compact package than inherently buoyant life jackets.

However, they do their job ­differently than old-school PFDs and require yearly maintenance, which means unpacking the inflatable bladder, removing a trigger mechanism and the C0₂ cartridge, then replacing and ­repacking the bladder. If you keep six of them on your boat, that could be an annual three-hour job, and repack kits cost around $30 each.

Be aware that inflatables are a legal replacement for ­inherently inflatable jackets, but in most states, only if worn while underway. They are also legal replacements only on people 16 years old and older. They are not legal for use on personal watercraft.

How We Tested 

We used an underwater POV cam in an 8-foot pool to record water entry to resurfacing. We started the clock when feet broke the surface and stopped when the “victim’s” head resurfaced. Faster is better, but as long as you know what to expect, we didn’t think the 2-second difference between the fast ones and slow ones mattered.

Repacking

All but one PFD we tested had a similar bobbin and cartridge trigger. Unscrew the bobbin barrel, replace the yellow bobbin—it can go into the barrel only one way and screw the bobbin barrel cap down until the charge window shows green for ready. Then replace the CO₂ cartridge. We deliberately did not clock repacking time. The procedure goes faster with practice, and we repacked them to see how ­complicated it was and how easily we could return them to original ­undeployed shape.

Mustang Survival MIT 150 A/M Convertible

$189.99; Bass Pro Shop and amazon.com

Best Application: Inshore to Nearshore 

Mustang Survival has specialized designing and producing marine safety gear for law enforcement, military, recreational boaters and more since 1967. The MIT jacket is sleek, and the bladder is integrated into the shell rather than stuffed into the shell, as with competitors. When it inflates, it unfolds and can be easily refolded and recharged. Mustang Survival’s MIT 150 offers about 38 pounds/168 newtons of buoyancy.

On-Deck Comfort: The MIT design hugs the neck more than Spinlock models, but they are so light and sleek, I often forgot to take it off when I left the boat. Its front center waist belt buckle is convenient and much appreciated. The seam around the collar was a little raspy on dry land but more comfortable in the water.

Water Comfort: The design of the MIT ensures that there is no sharp bladder edge anywhere near the neck or chest. We found this to be the only one that gave us protection from chaffing, which we think could be very important if rescue were to take more than a few minutes.

Adjustability: The waist strap remains straight as the jacket is pulled over the shoulders. Once buckled, the waist strap can be adjusted from the right side by pulling the strap through a slotted friction buckle until the back strap is snug. The excess strap is fastened in a hook-and-loop enclosure.

Bonus Points: This was by far the sleekest in our test group and very comfortable to wear. MIT’s foldable bladder is genius, easy to repack, and makes it most comfortable in the water. It is simplicity in motion.

Repacking: This is hands-down the easiest to repack thanks to the unique design of the MIT, which integrates the shell with the bladder instead of confining an accordion-folded bladder inside the shell.

Deployment Time: 4 seconds

Deployment Depth: 8 feet

Bluestorm Stratus 35

$159; bluestormgear.com $149.99; amazon.com

Best Application: Inshore to Nearshore

The Stratus 35 provides 35 pounds of buoyancy (about 155 newtons). Its design is similar to the Mustang MIT jacket in that its inflation bladder is integrated into the shell, so when repacking, all one needs to do is fold the shell in thirds and fasten with the hook-and-loop strips. It’s a good-looking jacket and comes in a variety of colors, including camo and Kryptek water camo (for a $20 upcharge).

On-Deck Comfort: This one did rest on the neck. But its breathable, moisture-wicking collar was soft and nonabrasive, mitigating the added contact. The collar is compact and styled into the webbed back yoke that spreads the load and adds comfort.

Water Comfort: This one was the second-most comfortable in the water, but we noticed a little contact with the abrasive bladder. Still, it kept our victim secure with the air passageway well above the water while awaiting rescue.

Adjustability: It buckles in the center, making it easy to put on and keep the back strap from twisting. The large 2.25-inch center buckle is easy to operate, even with gloves. The right-hand waist-strap adjustment was easy to operate as well, and it remained adjusted.

Bonus Points: Similar in design to the Mustang MIT, it repacks easily and wears comfortably. The clear inspection window on the front makes it easy to see if your jacket is ready to save our life.

Repacking: Replacing the bobbin (water-dissolving trigger) and cartridge was easy. Once that was done, the jacket folds in thirds—the outside inward, and that inside over the outside to be secured on a hook-and-loop strip. The collar didn’t return to its original position quite as easily as the yoke, but a kid could manage it.

Deployment Time: 6 seconds

Deployment Depth: 8 feet

Bluestorm Arcus 40

$199; bluestormgear.com $184.99; amazon.com

Best Application: Nearshore to Offshore

The Arcus 40 shared similarities with some Spinlock models. Its 40 designation referenced 40 beefy pounds (179 newtons) of flotation, making it suitable for nearshore and offshore use. The shell around the bladder is zippered and rounded when packed. Its webbing is a heavy-duty 2 inches, and the back yoke is foam-padded for comfort. The device is made for commercial use, but it’s compact, comfortable and economical enough for recreational use.

On-Deck Comfort: We liked this one a lot. Like the Spinlock, it is comfortable to wear, giving plenty of margin around the neck, so it doesn’t chafe. The back padding might make it a bit warm in Southern climes but will make it more comfortable in the water awaiting rescue.

Water Comfort: The zippered shell is designed to protect the neck from chaffing from the inflatable bladder, and it did to some extent, but not completely. The bladder seam inflated beyond the shell, and we felt the abrasive bladder around our jawbone more than around our neck.

Bonus Points: There is a zippered pocket in the lapel to hold a cellphone, wallet or other gear, and though it isn’t big enough for the larger new smartphones, it’s still a handy feature. The thickly padded back has bumped-out foam to add ventilation and comfort—especially in the water. It is surprising how much difference there is between 35 pounds of flotation and 40.

Repacking: The zippered shell is a little harder to arrange around the accordion-folded bladder because it takes two hands to manage the zipper and one to hold the bladder in place while zipping it. We did manage to do it single-handed by inching the zipper up while holding the bottom with one hand and using the other to simultaneously hold the bladder and pull the zipper.

Deployment Time: 6 seconds

Deployment Depth: 8 feet

Read Next: How to Properly Read New Life-Jacket Labels

Spinlock 6D Deck Vest

$419; spinlock.co.uk $389.99; Amazon

Best Application: Nearshore to Offshore 

Spinlock has been making sailing equipment since 1968 and life jackets since 2004. The life jackets come with mesh storage bags that allow them to hang while drying. The 6D includes a lift ring for man-overboard recovery. A crotch strap prevents the vest from riding up, either on deck or in the water. An integrated spray hood will prove welcome in rough conditions. It provides 38 pounds of flotation, or 170 newtons.

On-Deck Comfort: The rounded yoke feels reassuring and comfortable around the shoulders, and its design keeps it off the neck, making the vest an extra measure cooler to wear. The back of the yoke is padded for comfort. It tested as most comfortable on deck.

Water Comfort: We thought that the padding around the neck on the collar would provide comfort when deployed, but it did not. The bladder inflated beyond the neoprene collar and left the sharp edges of the bladder against our neck. While in the water, we couldn’t raise the neoprene collar above the seams. 

Adjustability: The jacket waistband opens conveniently front and center. When buckled, the back strap adjusts easily from both the left and the right with web straps just about kidney height. 

Bonus Points: We liked the clear inspection window and especially that streamlined manual-deployment handle tucked into the lapel. It’s easily accessible and unlikely to snag. Two water-activated LED rescue lights begin flashing on immersion.

Repacking: The bladder has to be folded accordion-style to fit back within the jacket shell. It takes practice to get it into shape and hold it in shape while maneuvering the zipper to pull around it. When done, it was exactly as comfortable as when new out of the package.

Deployment Time: 4 seconds

Deployment Depth: 8 feet

The post Four Top Inflatable PFDs Tested appeared first on Boating Mag.

Three days into our annual trip down the Upper Mississippi River, my wife and I were preparing our 30-foot cabin cruiser, Weekend Therapy, for the 30-mile stretch from Red Wing to Winona, Minnesota, requiring a crossing of Lake Pepin, the largest lake on the river.

Monitoring weather reports as we did our daily system checks, we saw that a storm was moving in. We could stay and ride it out in Red Wing, risk being delayed and lose our slip and dinner reservations in Winona, or shove off pronto, maintain schedule, and hope that we stayed ahead of it. 

This being our fifth summer on the river, we’d experienced heavy weather, and found it easier to navigate storms than rearrange reservations during high-tourist season, so we double-checked that our gear was secured, and we set off for Winona.

Slowly motoring out of the marina, river bluffs framed an azure sky, but thunder rumbled in the distance. I put the throttle down on the 360 hp MerCruiser to put some distance between us and the approaching tempest. 

Weaving between buoys marking the navigable channel, the river bluffs widened out into the lake proper. We throttled down to assess the situation. The wind picked up, pushing 6-foot rollers across the wide expanse of open water. A stark line of black clouds severed the sky. The storm hadn’t tracked like the app had projected. We donned life jackets and prepared for a rough ride.

Read Next: Capsize, Rescue and Lessons Learned

Spray crashing over the gunwales, keeling over precariously, the hull shuddered with every pounding wave. Then it rained—a spatter culminating in a deluge. The windshield wipers couldn’t keep up and I couldn’t see, but my wife could watch for buoys through the porthole and wave me in the proper direction, just like we’d practiced. 

When it blew over and a triple rainbow materialized, we were soaked and a little shaky at the knees, second-guessing our decision to push on that morning, but the Red Wing marina had sustained damage, and chances are Weekend Therapy would have been damaged too if we’d stayed. 

Stay or go, there are always risks, and it pays to be prepared.

Jeff Schwarz
Hudson, Wisconsin

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