This fair weather story and near fatality recently unfolded right before my eyes at the Coast Guard Muskegon moorings. The Friday afternoon offered warm temperatures, clear skies, and calm waters. We were preparing to get underway when we noticed two elderly fishermen aboard a 21-foot fiberglass boat adrift at the entrance to our mooring basin. Reportedly, they were experiencing engine problems and needed a tow to a nearby marina. Not a situation that you would think offered the slightest hint of disaster; if anything, it promised to be just another routine tow. Hardly. It brings to mind an old Coast Guard axiom that chiefs have passed on to crews for generations: "There is no such thing as routine tow." Oh, how true that is, as we soon would find out.

I tried to call out to the fisherman but they couldn’t hear me, so we got underway to their position, which was only fifty yards away at best. As we made ready to slip away from the moorings one of the fisherman moved forward on the starboard side alongside the cabin, a span of deck no wider than one foot length. It looked like slow motion as he stumbled, rolled and plunged overboard. He smacked the water with his side, the splash echoed across the boat basin. He went under and resurfaced, thrashing about like a first-time swimmer. He began dog paddling towards a nearby seawall that runs along the Muskegon Channel.

My first direction to the crew was to make ready the rescue heaving line and life ring, which seaman Horky produced before my words ended. Meanwhile the fisherman in the water reached the seawall and began pawing at the six-foot vertical seawall like a dog. We directed him to a nearby ladder at the end of the wall where he grabbed onto a ladder rung. He lacked the strength to climb up the ladder; in fact he could barely hang onto it. We came alongside the wall and scooped him into the Coast Guard boat.

He was soaked, shaken, and needless to say embarrassed, but grateful, and well he should be- he was darn lucky. Suppose he had fallen overboard at night or early morning? His older brother adrift on the boat would have been useless, his call for help would have probably gone unheard, and there was no way he could’ve of climbed up that six foot vertical seaway. Moreover, when he hit the water he lost his glasses so when he reached the seaway, like Mister Mcgoo, he began groping down the wall rather than to a nearby ladder at the end of the seawall. It’s doubtful that he would’ve made it to the ladder he was heading for, some 75 feet away.

And what would’ve happened if we hadn’t been nearby to respond as quickly as we did? He even told us later he thought he was a goner. His life-saving ace in the hole would’ve been a life jacket but it lay in the boat, and there was no throwable device aboard that his brother could have tossed to him.

In short, lack of these simple safety items, even in front of a Coast Guard mooring, under ideal weather conditions, nearly claimed old John’s life.

After we moored John’s boat, I walked up to John and his wife. "I’m giving you a direct order," I said. Her eyes, level with the pockets of my orange life vest, traveled up to meet mine as she cocked back her head. Pointing my finger at John, I continued: "It is your responsibility to make sure that your husband wears a life jacket when he’s out on his boat, and that he gets a lifer ring. That’s a standing order" My eyes bore into hers. I proceeded then to describe the mishap that nearly claimed her husband’s life. Her eyes told me that my blunt delivery was not only acceptable but also appreciated. I didn’t care how she felt, the message was far too important to mince words.

She reached her arm out and put it around her husband and drew him near. He hugged her back as if both knew that their years of marriage had nearly ended that fair day. How many times I thought have I been there where the husband wouldn’t be coming home. The horrible feeling of a needless loss lingers with me for days, and for the next of kin- often for years.

Yes, I issued John a citation for not having a throwable device aboard (life ring). He’s lucky it only cost him money; it could’ve cost him his life. Boat Smart- don’t become another sad story, wear a life jacket. ****

Boat Smart is now on the Internet: www.boatsmart.net (includes Lake Michigan water temperatures and local weather).

Use channel 16 for emergencies, and channel 9 for calling fellow boaters.