I have thought long and hard about posting this blog and it's not to highlight my actions but my hope that everyone who reads this will learn from our mistake and "WEAR YOUR LIFE JACKET".
A few weeks ago a good friend invited me to go fishing for Bass. Being the first chilly day of the year I put on my gum boots and a fleece jacket to keep warm. We got to the lake and I got the boat ready and connected the trolling motor and so on, while my friend got his tackle ready.
We have fished this lake before and while there are a lot of fish there are also a lot of weeds. The weeds snare up the boat's prop. and so we typically use the oars to get out a bit before starting the electric motor and start our fishing. The boat is a small aluminum boat for two. While wading out in my boots to push the boat out the thought crossed my mind as to how I would swim with these heavy boots. Talk about a premonition!
I rowed us out to a patch of water that looked weed free about 175 yards from the shore and then told my friend that we would now switch places so that I could run the motor. Without further thought and in a blinking of an eye without having the time to process what happened, we found ourselves being thrown in the air and next second were in the water. The boat had capsized!
Somehow I managed to hold the side of the boat while it was going over do not remember myself going into the water completely. My friend on the other hand was under water next to me. I reached down and grabbed him and pulled him up, he came up spluttering shouting that he did not know how to swim and grabbed the boat for all he was worth. My friend is extremely fit for his age, but being out of his element was panic stricken.
It took a few moments for me to realize the predicament we were in! Hanging on to an upside down boat in the middle of a weed infested lake, with a friend who did not know how to swim without any life jackets on. I realized I had to take control over the situation and calmed my friend down by saying that everything was going to be just fine as long as we held on to the boat. By this time I also realized that it seemed like the boat was going to remain afloat. I then started to swim for both of us, the minutes dragged on and after the first bit of adrenalin had worn off I realized my heavy gum boots had to come off, a bit later it was my jeans. The minutes dragged on and on, we had hit the water at 3:30pm, an hour later my friend was not doing too well. He was loosing hope and said he wasn't going to be able to hold on much longer. Every time he said that I calmed him down and told him the shore was no more than 50 yards. I kept up the pace as much as I could, swim push the boat, swim some more push the boat, take a breather, swim again and on and on we went.
At one point it seemed like the current was pushing us back out into the lake and the boat swung around. Somehow I managed to turn it back. At this point I managed to drop the motor and battery that was somehow still attached to get rid of some of the weight. We pushed on and on and I noticed my friend had started to shiver very badly. He said that he was very cold and was not going to be able to hang on too much longer. Hypothermia was setting in. He asked if he could climb on to the boat and I agreed. Somehow he managed to hoist himself up and lay on the boat. This was not a good move as the boat immediately started to go lower in the water. I immediately told him to get off, thankfully he obeyed.
I kept swimming the shore was well in reach but there was no way I could leave him. With every bit of energy I pushed on. He then complained that he had severe cramps, I told him to ignore the cramps and just hold the bloody boat. As we came closer to the shore, the weeds became thicker and snared the boat, I kept pushing as hard as I could and suddenly found my right leg in a very severe painful cramp. Fortunately I was able to rest holding on to the boat and ignoring the pain kept going.
Finally we managed to break free of the weeds and land was but a few yards a way. My friend's calls that he really wasn't going to be able to hold on much more energized me to keep swimming harder and push the boat which by this had become very heavy. We had been in the water for 2.5 hours. Finally we reached shore and were able to touch bottom two feet from the shore! I was barely able to walk and it took over two hours before I regained any feeling in my feet.
We were very very lucky. My friend was very thankful for my efforts and I silently thanked my father for being there in spirit. Yesterday made 27 years that he died, while saving a friend of mine from drowning.
P.S. Sadly some other fishermen were not so lucky this last weekend. Four fishermen from Brooklyn, NY went fishing and their boat capsized, only one of them was able to swim to shore.
Wear your life belts, trust me there is no time to put them on, if a boat goes over.
